Page 49 - Niyog2021_US

The Family of God...A Paradise on Earth by Gladies Jobi, Bachelor of Divinity Third Year
That they all may be one, as
You, Father are in Me, and I in You; that they may also be one in us,...” John 17: 21
“Didi, I am surrounded by so many people but I feel like I don’t belong to anyone, I have my parents but they don’t even consider me as their daughter, I even have my siblings but they behave as if I am a stranger to them . . . .” Her eyes were filled with tears and the lan- guage she knew wasn’t enough for her to ex- press her dilemma, or I don’t know what to call it . But she found it very difficult to frame all that she had gone through into a few sen- tences . She continued, “Didi, everyone in this world longs for one thing and that is love, Didi, I just want someone to love me, someone to sit beside me and tell me ‘I am there for you .’” This is just a story of one among millions who feel themselves rejected and unwanted .
Family is the basic social unit and it was instituted by God . Ever since its inception in the Garden of Eden, God always intended families to be a small paradise on this earth . Paradise originally meant an enclosed park or garden, a place of safety and security . It was to be such a place of joy, love, fellowship and security that God placed the first family . But everything turned out to be too differ- ent when Adam and Eve sinned against God . Thereafter families were no more the way that God intended them to be . Disunity, strife, conflicts, and brokenness overtook what God intended for happiness and peace . The sup- posed secured place, the paradise on earth, turned out to be something different than what it was intended to be .
When the whole world was in such a pathetic state, God sent His only Son Jesus to begin a new family where there would be love, joy, peace and happiness . The new fam- ily Jesus instituted on this earth was entirely different from the understanding of families in the Greco-Roman and Jewish world . Jesus redefined the members of this family beyond mother, father, brothers and sisters or kin relations . Looking at those who were sitting around Jesus, He said “behold, my mother and
my brothers, for whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother (Mark 3:34- 35) . In other words, it is a family beyond race, ethnicity, caste, class and gender . Of course, Jesus had to pay a price, that is, giving him- self on cross by shedding the last drop of his blood, to establish this new family of God . In and through Jesus Christ, God has graciously invited us to be a part of His new family, the paradise on this earth .
Biblical literature introduces all those who responded positively to this gracious invita- tion as the children of God and the members of the family of God . For example, Paul de- scribes in Ephesians 2:19 that the believers are no more strangers and aliens but fellow citi- zens with saints and are of God’s household (family) . Paul describes this in the context of the needed unity in the church, which is God’s new creation and new family – a paradise on this earth . Love, joy, peace and unity are the marks of this new family .
The saddest reality is that in spite of all that Jesus had done, the members of this new fam- ily remain disunited, intolerant and unhappy with each other . Like before, when He estab- lished His new family, He expected His chil- dren to love one another, care for each other, and to exist as a small paradise on this earth even in the midst of so much of cultural differ- ences, racial differences, linguistic differences and many other differences but sadly this is not the way His new family, the Church functions .
How beautiful it would be when we, un- worthy members of this new family just pour out our love on each other even when there are so many differences! How beautiful it would be when we together become voice to the voiceless, help to the helpless, hope to the hopeless and a beacon of light in the world that is filled with darkness!
As children of one Father, it is not the time for us to remain divided and hold on to our dif- ferences but it’s high time for all of us to strive together as one family to become what God desires us to be and reach out to our brothers and sisters who are not yet a part of this beauti- ful family . Great changes always begin with an individual, and my prayer is that God may unite each of us together to represent the new family of God, His paradise of God on earth . n
49