"See what sort of love He gave to us, the Father, in order that little children of God we should be called - and we are. Because of this the world does not know us, because it did not know Him."
-Family. We are actually members of God’s family. Thru Jesus. Thru Jesus, God has adopted us as His children and brought us into His forever family. John says, see this. It is a command. Stop and look. Take notice, and take it in, that the God of the universe, God almighty, thrice-holy and sublime in His manifold perfections, has done all that He has done in order to bring us into His family.
-Before we go deep on family we need to talk about love. One sixth of all the mentions of love in the NT occur in this letter, and to this point John has only mentioned it 5 times. There are 40 more mentions of love to come in these last three chapters (so get ready!). So far John has mentioned the love of God and the love of the Father, and here he tells us to stop, and look, behold, and take notice, take note of this love, what kind of love, what great great love God has given us. There is no end to His love, no instrument in the universe with which to measure how high and deep and long and wide is the Father’s unending overflowing love. For us. Boundless. Limitless. Inexhaustible. Amazing. Look at it - take it all in, if you can...! It'll take you forever - which, I believe, is precisely the point...
-But I think we as moderns have quite a diluted and distorted view of how significant this is, not only that God loved us, but that He brought us into His family. Back in the day, family was the foundation, the building block of society in the ancient world. Family was everything. It was all about your family, your clan. Family provided safety and security and stability, education, health care, elderly care, child care - so many things we moderns farm out to others. We are far more prodigal, freely ranging far from home, often living apart and even estranged from those whose blood flows through our own veins. Part of the reason we live apart is because the wealth of our society affords us that "luxury" (if it can truly be referred to as such). We can often survive just fine on our own apart from parents or grandparents, or kids to care for us when we’re old, or even a spouse. Gone in many ways are the days when being an orphan or a widow or an alien was truly a life-threating proposition. But gone in many ways are many of the values which used to be attached to this idea of family. We readily and eagerly head away from home to make our fortune in the world, we jump in and out of relationships almost at a whim, we let others raise our kids, we (begrudgingly?) kick aged parents to the curb (i.e. to the nearest nursing home) - not all of us, of course, but the economics allow (force?) us to do so and society tells us it’s the new normal. Everybody’s doing it. The world, sadly, doesn't know Him or this kind of love.
-It has been called the death of the nuclear family, trumpeted by so-called progressives, lamented by conservatives. And to be fair, it isn’t all bad, right? Our day does allow tremendous opportunity for so many, for learning and for making a difference in the world. We tend to have copious amounts of discretionary time - for good or bad. Certainly there are increasing ways in which brokenness puts pressure on marriages and families and on caring for kids and parents alike. Let’s in no way minimize the challenges associated with trying to make ends meet or care for children and aging parents. But in so many ways, in this place of a "new normal", family seems to be increasingly fragmented and fleeting. And let's not even get started on how the iPhone is affecting both current and future families...! :) I do think - let's be honest - that at least a portion of this so-called new normal is driven by more selfish motives. Maintaining or attaining a certain lifestyle. Preferring comfort and convenience and feeling good over what is arguably much harder work. Family - keeping it together, making it work - can be hard work, to be sure. Kids - nuff said. But one thing which is vanishing with these ancient values is the ability to really appreciate what it means to say that God has brought us into. His. family. And in heaven, family is forever. It MEANS something, some of which has been lost. So we just can’t be thinking of family in these modern terms - if we do, we fail to grasp the significance of this transaction. Oh yeah, family. That’s nice, I’m sure. But who needs it really.
-We think we don’t need family anymore. But we’re dead wrong. We need this place of kinship, of perfect love and acceptance. We need this place and this heart to which we can run when we are hurt or scared or alone or don’t know what to do or where to turn. We need this source of divine wisdom and timely encouragement and tender compassion. We need this place of safety and shelter from life’s battering storms. And we need a Father. A perfect Daddy. Not (EVER) absent. Not silent. Not closed up, all distant and aloof. What GREAT love He has lavished on us! He wants to be our Daddy! He longs for us to turn to Him in our hearts as trusting children not just when we’re in a pinch but every day, naturally, as instinctively as breathing. Stop and see, behold, take notice of how great a love our Father has given to us, to call us His children and bring us into His family. Forever and ever, with no end, no limits... So, who’s your Daddy? And not only who's your Daddy, but who's your family? How are we doing as a spiritual family? Being reminded that our Daddy loves us and we are his children reminds us that we are brothers and sisters - we belong to each other, together, and we need each other, in the truest and ancient and most enduring sense...!
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