We all have a deep need to
belong. It is how we were made. It is woven into our DNA. It is part of what it means to be made in the
image of the Triune God. When we truly
belong, we experience life the way it was intended to be. And when, for some reason, we feel like we do
not belong, it makes us the worst version of ourselves—needy, clingy,
demanding, insecure, fearful, etc.
But before we can ever truly belong to one
another, we must first belong to God. If
our need to belong is not first met in him, then we will angrily move toward
one another, demanding from each other what we were never intended to fully
give. But if we are able, by God’s
grace, to find our sense of belonging first in him, then we can experience the
beauty and the blessing of community spoken of in Psalm 133; the kind of
community in which God bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.
Then we can finally move
beyond ourselves and consider how to help make others feel like they belong as
well. Then we can start to consider how we
can invite them to belong more deeply to Jesus.
And how we can invite them to more deeply belong to one another. Then we can dream about how we can create spaces
of belonging, both within us and among us, so that people are draw to our community
like moths to a flame. For only then will
our life together be like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the
beard—fragrant, rich, healing soothing.
For only then will our community be like the dew of Hermon falling on
Mount Zion. For only then will our
community be something worth belonging to.
Lord God, thank you that, ultimately, I belong to you. And because I belong to you, I can freely
belong to others. Help me, O Lord, to be
a part of your desire to bring others into the full knowledge of that belonging—first
to you and then to each other. In the
name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment