Daily Devotional for Tuesday, January 27

Individuals Related to Jesus

“And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it,” Luke 8:21.

It takes more than biology to make a family. The late great Christian comedian Jerry Clower tells of how when he was a little boy, his father ran off and left him, his brother and their mother, Mabel. At school, Jerry, who had no father to provide for them, was often among the children who needed assistance for lunch and other necessities. Life was hard and times were tough. Eventually, his mother married again to a man named Elliott Moore. Mr. Moore was, in Jerry’s words, a “good man.” After Mr. Moore came into the family, he began to fill the void left by an absentee father. Jerry related once in an interview, “After Mr. Elliott became our daddy, we had a dime to take to school, to see the Wild Bill Cody show. When I was a senior in high school, he made it possible to put a deposit down on a senior ring. He loved us and provided for us.” Elliott Moore shared no DNA with Jerry, but he was a beloved father to Jerry and his brother Sonny.  

Jesus helps us understand that family relation is not limited to human blood lines and birth certificates. The spiritual family of God is not born of flesh, but of faith, and that faith produces works that provides evidence of relationship (James 2:14-26). Jesus was not being disrespectful to his family when He used them as an object lesson to point His listeners to a higher level of thinking about relationships. As always, He was leading to a greater understanding of our privileges and responsibilities as His beloved kinsmen.

You cannot help who your mother or father is, but you can, by faith, choose to place your faith in Jesus, and by so doing, be born into the family of God, complete with a Heavenly Father, Jesus as joint-heir, and brothers and sisters too numerous to count!

FINAL THOUGHT

Just imagine the eternal family reunion God has planned for us!

John Nations