By Barbara Rainey
First posted on EverThineHome.com
Have you ever wondered where you belong? Looked for a place to fit in? Felt all alone right in the middle of all your people?
It’s okay. I have too. We all have.
Together matters even when we don’t feel the connections as we’d like. Home matters, too, because that’s where belonging begins.
You’ve likely heard the phrase before: Home is where you belong. Home is a biblical idea; God made us to be connected to specific people—our families—in a specific place: our homes. And it’s biblical because God will call us to live with Him forever one day in His Home.
Many of you recently found yourself in the back-to-school scurry at your home. You’re reorganizing your family into this year’s fall routine and trying to keep up with crockpot dinners, practice schedules, lunch money, and scheduled family nights.
Maybe you are like me and you’ve asked yourself, “Why am I doing all of this?!” on more than one overly busy day.
We women do tend to take on more than can be done. At least this woman does. But I know that what I’m doing matters, that my efforts might result in good for those I love. I no longer have kids at home, but I’m always looking for opportunities to gather with my family … knowing that something meaningful might take place when we are together for those weekends or holidays or vacations. And that hope is all this mom needs to keep going. To keep getting my family together.
The word gather is used over 130 times throughout the Old and New Testaments, which means it’s not an inconsequential concept. The most common use is in reference to God gathering us, His people.
Deuteronomy 30:3 says, “God will gather you again from all the peoples …” and in Matthew 18:20 Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.”
Gathering together mirrors God’s familial relationship with His Son and with us, His children. It is therefore a very biblical practice. If gathering is something God does, and we are to imitate Him, then I want to bring my people together and make it meaningful for my King.
