We Are Family

John 15:12 –

‘My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.’

For many people this past year, including Christmas, has been spent apart from family, which has got me thinking a lot about what family looks like, where family begins and ends and what can it look like when done well. In Luke 10:25-37 the story of the Good Samaritan is an example of Jesus making it very clear that no one is excluded from God’s family. Here is a traveller who has been rejected, beaten and robbed; many people passed by until the Samaritan arrived who took him, fed him and cared for him. It’s slightly out of the box and not a traditional example of what society has portrayed family to be but as Christians we are called to be part of but different from society and to love those beyond our natural family as ourselves. It would have been easier for the Samaritan to ignore the traveller but he chose to go out of the way and to help this Jewish stranger who would have been considered an enemy by his people

More than ever during this season of pandemic, there are many lonely and isolated people, people that might feel like they’ve been rejected, people that are desperate for connection or just to be shown love and given hope for life, like the traveller was.

As a church family who can we welcome in and come along side as we step into a new year and a new lockdown? Whether it’s delivering a home-bake to a neighbour or a phone call to an old friend or a passing chat with someone on their own in the park (while social distancing!) or befriending someone through Love Your Neighbour, let’s fling open our doors (metaphorically due to COVID!). No-one should feel invisible or ‘left wounded by the roadside’.

Prayer – Jesus give me eyes to see and boldness to reach out to those in in need.