Belonging—Who Wants Me?

Belonging comes first. God designed life so that no one should be born alone. Before there was a child, there were parents, a loving and caring community of people that comprises a family. God is a relational being (three, yet one), and everything He created is set into relationship to Him and other beings. We need to belong.

Unfortunately, the ideal God intended has been affected by sin. New life is not always received and welcomed by people of love and care. Too many people find themselves asking, “Who wants me?”

How comforting it is to know that our Creator never abandons us. He already knows us before we are born (Jer. 1:5). He was involved in your life before you ever knew it. Today, He is with you and around you, and He wants you to be part of His family. That is why the Bible pictures God as our father and us as his children (2 Cor. 6:18; 1 John 3:1). In Jesus God was willing to invest everything to make sure that you can be part of His family. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Heb. 13:5). Imagine, you can belong to God’s household (Eph. 2:19).

One day Jesus was teaching in a house packed with people who wanted to learn from Him (see Mark 3:31-35). When His blood relatives, His mother and brothers, came and wanted to talk with him, He did not respond as expected. Everyone would have understood if Jesus had taken a brief time-out to meet them, but he didn’t. Instead, He asked, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” And then He was looking into the eyes of those sitting at his feet, saying, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother” (Matt. 12:48-50).

Jesus used the situation to teach a profound lesson. If you have decided to follow Jesus and learn God’s way of love, He will truly identify with you as His brother or sister. You are part of His true family. You belong, forever.