Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Have you ever found yourself waking from a bad dream and being extremely happy and grateful the moment you realized it was just that and not reality? I had such an experience three mornings ago. At first, I thought it was a senseless dream but as I thought more about it, I realized it made all the sense in the world. Remember the general plot of the movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart? Clarence the angel showed him how bleak and heartbreaking the lives of his family members and friends would have been had he not been born. When he awoke and snapped back to reality, he yelled and danced for joy and saw how beautiful his life really was, regardless of the possible financial ruin he was facing.
I saw that bleakness and hopelessness in my dream. In it, the marriage of two of my children was in shambles, as well as my own. It was very troubling to say the least and I caught a glimpse of the pain and anguish many families cope with on a daily basis. By God’s mercy and grace our family is not like that at all, and although we are far from being perfect and have our share of problems, because of Him we are a very united and closely knit unit. We are blessed to see our children and grandchildren at least once a week, some of them two or three times. Even better, they all know and serve the Lord, which means we will be together forever. Many parents wish they could say the same and because God is good, they can someday. And we are perfectly aware, just as David was when he wrote Psalm 124, Who’s responsible for the many blessings our family enjoys. He began by saying “If the Lord had not been on our side” and then added that their enemies would have swallowed them alive, and like raging waters would have swept them away. He ends his psalm with these words: We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.”(verses 7-8)
We all have many enemies too and not all of them are human. Still, it is the Lord who saves us from them continually. We are all familiar with the word “dysfunctional” which is used to describe many families nowadays. To be objective, I don’t believe anyone today can see what line separates “functional” from “dysfunctional.” Even so, we all know some who certainly fit in the latter category in our opinion. That being said, if our family is not dysfunctional, we can be very grateful to God for it, and if it is, we can look to Him with faith and hope knowing that He can change it and restore it. The formula is really quite simple: the more we draw closer to God, the better the chances for our own family to draw closer together as well. If nothing else, if we walk closely with God, we will have “family” everywhere we go. Would you like that? Would you want your family to be closer together? Then don’t forget the simple formula and believe God for the answer.
Memory Verse for the week: (Psalm 127:3) “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him.”
