I am so overwhelmed by the amazingly kind and encouraging comments you all left on my 6 year blogiversary post. (If you haven't entered the awesome celebration giveaway-there's still time!) I am so thankful for each of you. What a joy it would be to meet you face to face someday! But for now, I look forward to spending time with you here through words and glimpses into the grace in each other's lives. Thank you for celebrating what God has done here...
Today, I'm joining in--for the first time---at Five Minute Friday over at Lisa-Jo Baker's blog. The rules: Write for five minutes on the prompt given. No editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
This week's prompt (by guest host, Ann Voskamp):
BELONG
Go:
I stepped foot on the Eastern shores of the United States at three years old with no understanding of the new language, no Cabbage Patch doll, no home, no friends, and no English name. I had no idea that I didn't belong until I understood the universal language of mockery, embarrassment, and rejection. I so wanted to feel belonging, so I became a little expert in dressing like others, speaking like others, and having what others had. And, the funny thing about belonging--at 3 or at 33--is that you feel that you belong when others treat you...like family. But family doesn't extend your membership based on how current your clothes are or how similar your tastes. Family hems you in because they've chosen to. They've committed to loving, committed to forgiving, committed to accepting, committed to belonging.
And there is no belonging, like belonging to Christ-- to the Family where we are welcome and chosen. I may be tempted to look the part, speak convincingly, or possess what others might possess in faith, but that proves--again and again--to add nothing to my place of belonging at the table. I'm loved and welcomed because my Father is hospitable and generous with all that his Kingdom offers...in forgiveness, in acceptance. There's no vying for belonging here...the Redeemed are nothing less...than family.
Stop.
Have a lovely weekend, friends. May you remember once again the great riches that are yours in Christ this weekend...simply because he's chosen to draw close and to make all that is his, yours. You belong to him; you belong.