around every corner…

Have you ever had the feeling that you were seeing the same thing around every corner? Whether it is going to Seattle and seeing a Starbucks every two blocks or driving cross country on the interstate and seeing signs for McDonalds at every other exit. It seems that life occasionally has its seasons of repetitive speaking. Sometimes it whispers and then it starts to yell. Recently it has been a season of shouting for me.

When it came time for the Creator to personally engage in the redemption of people, he did so in an obviously perfect yet seemingly dangerous way. Jesus was to be born as a man and die like a man. What has been so striking to me is the PLACE that all of this took place. God’s agent of redemption was to be given a family, a mother and father. Out of this cohesive covenant would come the Christ. The family would be the vehicle through which the Savior would be carried. Jesus would consummate what was begun in the Garden with the first family’s privilege of filling the earth with the knowledge of the the glory of the Lord.

What I’ve found so thought provoking is that God would not only trust but entrust the Messiah to a young woman and her husband. It adds to my growing belief that it is inside of the family that the seed of redemption has been planted by God. It is his design within the created order that husbands and wives, Mommies and Daddies, men and women accept the task to act as agents of redemption. This begins first in the home itself and then is grows and spreads as every good healthy garden does.

So, back to the shouting that has been taking place in my life. I can’t pinpoint the week that it started happening, but I do know that its been going on for some time now. So many of our friends have been discussing and deciding that adoption is one of the greatest privileges and displays of redemption. As you read this, some of our good friends are in route to get their son, Simeon, from Ethiopia. A few days ago, some other friends passed the court process to adopt their little girl Sosi from Ethiopia as well. (Who knows, maybe they’ll get married).

I was certainly cut to the heart watching the Michael Oher story in the movie The Blind Side. The Tuohy family was a great portrayal of the redemptive power of family. I had been praying a fairly specific prayer lately that God is seeming to begin to answer. I’ve been asking God to bring someone into our family that we can love and share our life with, someone with whom we would normally not interact. Through a very humorous, but obviously ordained scenario, my wife has met and befriended a young girl from her Bible study group has been through it all. We are hoping and praying to be a part of her restoration process.

I often eat lunch with my daughter in Kindergarten on Fridays.  I’ve met most of the kids in her class, and not all have been raised in a family of redemption. While it is heartbreaking, I leave every time knowing exactly how my wife and I are to view our home together. It begins in the willing hearts of the parents (like Mary and Joseph) to accept the change.

Next in line is the daily life-giving attitude and assignment that we have to raise our children to fear the Lord and worship Him alone. Along the way, then, the family is called to be an agent of redemption and restoration to others outside the home. From welcoming in a hurting friend from school, to befriending an international student from the local university, to serving a single mom while she makes her way through life on her own, to going to the ends of the earth and adopting a child, we are all to act.

THE HOME is the place that God has entrusted the responsibility of redemption by being couriers of the grace that is given in Jesus Christ.

Greg Harris defines a household as “people and possessions managed for a purpose.” May we all knowingly act in the truth that our purpose is redemption by pointing others to the Great Redeemer of our Souls, Jesus Christ. 

written by Finley Robinson

Tagged as: family, redemption