Recently I worked for a family of Chinese/Taiwanese origin.
Though I was sitting in their presence while they talked to each other and could hear clearly what they were saying, I was unable to understand them. Had I been born into that family and lived and grown up with them, everything they said would have been clear to me.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: If God were your father you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I have not come on my own but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your fathers desire(John 8:42-44).
Clearly from what is written, these Pharisees were born of a different father into a different family. As Jesus said, they did not understand the language or customs of Gods family.
If we are not born into a family and grow up with it, it takes a lot of effort and time spent with them to learn the language and customs. If we are adopted into a family, just the action of adoption – the signing of the paper so to speak – would not instantly grant us all those abilities. Even with the legal processes completed, we would still need to learn all those things, and that would require us to spend a lot of time in their company with an enquiring mind.
The same applies to our heavenly family. As it says in Ephesians 1:4, For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
We are the adopted sons and daughters of God. But we need to spend time in communion with him learning the customs and language. We can only do that by spending time with God in prayer, reading and studying his word in the Bible, allowing him to speak to us. We can chat to him whenever we like, sharing with him all our feelings, whether happy, angry, sad, depressed, amused, amazed or puzzled. And most importantly, not forgetting to be thankful for our blessings and privileges because we are members of his family.
We do this in the wonderful knowledge that even though we do not yet fully understand and may not feel like full members of the family, we are fully accepted.
When a child is born
When a new baby is born into a family, or a family adopts a young baby, it takes years for that child to learn the language and customs, whatever the nationality. The parents dont expel the child from the family because he or she falls over all the time while learning to walk, or because they cant speak meaningful sentences yet. On the contrary, the parents rush to pick the child up if it has fallen and comfort the crying toddler. Parents anticipate the needs of a child, making sure there is food, clean clothes and dry nappies. They make a special effort to understand the mispronounced single word requests. They will even carry the child over more difficult terrain. Why would God, who loves us far more than any human parent can, be any different with us?
The more time and effort spent in Gods company, the sooner you can feel confident in your family status, the more you will reflect their family values, behavior and manner of speaking.
But on the other hand, the more rebellious you are, the further you feel from the love and protection of the family. It requires you to stop, acknowledge your wrong attitude and ask forgiveness before you can feel that closeness again. Although the love and forgiveness has always been there, you need to turn around.
Rebelliousness and bad behaviour might eventually get you expelled from a human family, but Gods love is such that there is nothing you have done or can do that he will not forgive. Indeed you are already forgiven. Sometimes we can go a long way down the wrong path and its only when we get to the end of the road that we cry out in desperation to God for help. Other times, though, we can learn from others mistakes.
So dont wait until you are destitute. Accept the offer of your family membership today by accepting Jesus as your loving Saviour, and believe today that you are a child of God. But just as a baby messes its food, wets the bed and cannot yet speak the language, you are not perfect.
But in spite of that, you are a much loved and precious member of Gods family.