Galatians 3:26-29 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The thing that resonates for me in this passage is family. In CHRIST, we are all one family. Growing up one of my favorite TV shows was a western, Bonanza. Back then most of the shows on TV were about families, but I was like most kids back then and that meant being nearly obsessed with stories from the old west… and there was no family quite like the Cartwrights. The show focused on the life and time of the wealthy and powerful Cartwright family, owners of a mega ranch called the Ponderosa. Ben Cartwright was the quintessential patriarch, the silver haired self-made man who built the empire from the ground up. There were three sons as different as day and night. The oldest rugged, handsome, and smart. The middle son a hulk of a man, a gentle giant who could bend a horseshoe with his bare hands and leave an “all you can eat” buffet in total shambles. Then there was the baby of the family, also handsome but full of youthful mischief and immaturity.
Every week the family dealt with all sorts of drama with the potential to bring down the empire and completely destroy the family. But each and every week the family survived and the overwhelming reason they survived is because they were family, and not just any family, Cartwrights. Nothing, not earthquakes, droughts, sandstorms, serpents, sickness, bankruptcy, villains, or even the occasional love interest, could come between them or bring them down. At least not for long anyway.
We are reminded in this passage that no matter who we are or where we came from, in CHRIST we are all one family, and not just any family. In HIM, we are all of royal blood, the seed of Abraham! That does not mean that like the Cartwrights we will not encounter earthquakes, droughts, sandstorms, serpents, sickness, bankruptcy, villains, or even the occasional love interest. But it does mean that week after week, drama after drama, just like the family in that old TV series, in CHRIST, we will always prevail!
FATHER of all eternity we give YOU thanks and praise that through YOUR grace and the gift of YOUR son JESUS we are now part of the royal FAMILY. When the drama comes today remind us that we are not like everyone else, we are FAMILY. Remind us that we breathe the breath of the GOD of the universe once again and nothing can separate us from HIS awesome power. In JESUS name, amen.
Jim L