FAITHFUL LIVING Nov. 24, 2001, “Being part of the family of God adds dimension to life”

Published 4:00 pm Friday, November 23, 2001

I looked around the table this Thanksgiving and what I saw really did my heart good. It matched, in fact, a vision that originated Sept. 11 when I had carefully built deep within my heart a mental picture that included every person who sat before me this Thanksgiving. While I knew it would be some weeks before that picture would become reality, we had planned this event well in advance and I knew I could depend on my family because we have never failed to be a family.

Just like the picture I had formed on Sept. 11 to give me comfort, I saw on Thursday my parents, who have been devoted parents for more than 42 years. To my left sat my brother — my only sibling, his wife and their 3-year-old son who is so precious I would take him home if they would let me. To my right and down the table sat my cousin who in so many ways has served as a stand-in sister, my husband of 20 years, and our three children.

It felt like a long wait to finally sit down at that table — decorated down the middle with fall leaves and small pumpkins, candles and persimmons in a way even Martha Stewart would find appealing. Some of us had marshaled up courage and taken to the skies with stories of long lines and thorough security checks. Others of us had driven through pounding rain and wind to make this get-together happen. But we were together — at last! — and it meant more to me this year to see all of us together than it ever has. I appreciate my family’s generational expectation that family relationships be nurtured and endure. And in spite of the trials and tribulations, the frustrations and idiosyncrasies that define each one of us, I looked across the table at those I love and understood to a new depth that God is right — family is the building block of life that offers comfort and strength as nothing else can.

While some families in our nation looked across the table and mourned the loss of some family members, for some reason I have been given one more holiday season to see mine. I am immeasurably thankful for what I have today.

Because of my Christian faith I have yet another understanding of family that prominently stands out in my mind. I hold membership in another family — only this family was not one thrust upon me by birth or marriage. It is one I chose to join the day I said yes to God.

Last week I described my realization some years ago that I was born needy and incomplete. Some look upon this need as a fatal flaw. Others call it original sin. Whatever terminology clarifies the point for you, use it. I simply understood that I could live a good life — filled with my idea of good deeds and even better intentions — and still not satisfy the expectations of a perfect and just God. That there was a physical life and a spiritual reality was never a mystery to me or an unacceptable concept for me to understand. Neither did I question that there was a living, ever-present God or that I would be held responsible for the choices I made during my life. So when someone took the time to explain to me that God had made a provision for this impossible situation by becoming a man for a time, willingly being executed, suffering a horrible death, and in so doing taking on the judgment in my place, it all came together. A light bulb went off when I was able to identify situations where I saw God actively working through people in ways that defied logic. That bulb of understanding lit even brighter when I read scholarly accounts of atheistic scholars who changed their minds and embraced Christianity after careful study.

Alone and with no fanfare I took my first step in faith. I uttered my decision to God and slowly began telling others of my decision as I became comfortable with it. And true to God’s promise, I have been forever changed, for God has given me comfort and spiritual understanding in the most amazing of ways. Who I married, what I have chosen as a career, and how I order my days is all been influenced by my daily relationship with God, for He daily builds upon my understanding of family — adding purpose, depth, and satisfaction to my life experiences.

It is family life at its best and I would not have it any other way.

Joan Bay Klope is a freelance writer and former editor of Christian books. Contact her at jbklope@hotmail.com.