THE BLESSING OF BELONGING

Then His mother and His brothers came and, standing outside, they sent word to Him, calling [for] Him. And a crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, Your mother and Your brothers and Your sisters are outside asking for You. And He replied, Who are My mother and My brothers? And looking around on those who sat in a circle about Him, He said, See! Here are My mother and My brothers; For whoever does the things God wills is My brother and sister and mother!
--Mark 3:31-35

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BELONGING. It’s one of the most basic needs of man. Life is filled with the untold stories of people who pine away in depression or die in defeat, because of isolation. The ability to have a sense of belonging can make the difference between a prisoner surviving captivity or dying in hopelessness. In this world, sick from sin, not belonging anywhere, is a life-disfiguring torture. The most oppressed manage to survive if they can huddle together somehow.
Belonging is God’s greatest gift to man. Psa. 68:6 "God places the solitary in families."

In God's plan to restore the fallen world, restoring belonging to man is the first step, upon which all else is based...

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. —​Rom. 8:19

In our opening text (Mk 3:31-35), Jesus looks right past the claims of His natural family, and prefers the intimacy of those who are following Him. To the astonishment of all, Jesus gives the hope of belonging to everyone who ever experienced life as an outsider, disconnected and unsponsored. From the untouchables to the abandoned and rejected, Jesus offers His followers the gift of belonging to the Family of God, as His children. Outside the empty tomb, Jesus makes His first appearance when He greets Mary Magadelene. His statement to her reveals that a whole new status of relationship between God and man has been opened up. Knowing that Jesus isn't speaking in metaphor, reveals the wonderful, amazing, BELONGING available to the fugitives of sin!

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." —John 20:17

Stay On The Path!
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