THE CRY FOR BELONGING
 

This past summer Dan and I attended my family bi-annual reunion.  It was wonderful to see the generations enjoying that sense of being part of something bigger, something generational.  During these reunions, we have enjoyed hearing ancient history from the matriarch and patriarchs of the family.  There was a great turn out of the nieces and nephews as well as the “grand” ones.  Their time together was quite animated and a group of about seven of them decided to go to a tattoo parlor and have “you are my people” tattooed on their forearm. (We do not embrace the idea of tattoos.)  They said this phrase was a line from the series “The 100” which has been quite popular the last few years and still has quite a following. I am so removed from TV series so I did not have a clue as to what kind of show so captured them to the extent that they all wanted to get this tattoo.  So, I decided to begin watching the series (I stopped after I found the message).  Though there were several scenes I had to fast forward through because of inappropriate content, there was a strong message that almost jumped out of the screen.  The earth was recovering from a world-wide holocaust that took place over ninety years ago.  A few thousand people survived by going into outer space to live on space stations but after so many years their supplies were running out.  They were desperate so they sent 100 of their young people to earth to see if the earth was now inhabitable.  Over the course of time these young people discovered other people who survived on earth.  These people were divided up into “tribes” which were led by powerful leaders. These leaders were very protective of their people and devised ways of survival, even if it meant exploiting the other tribes or even destroying them.  Episode after episode tribe fought tribe, and I felt like shaking them and saying, “haven’t you learned anything from the past?  You are all part of one family, the family of human beings.  Why don’t you just work together to stay alive, embracing each other’s differences and giftings.”  Hence, came the line from one young woman who loved a man from another tribe, “You are my people.”

There is a heart cry today for unity, but the unity of the world is built upon force and oppression. The liberal agenda is One World Government, which is a counterfeit, a deception in direct contrast to Yeshua’s kingdom.  His kingdom is built upon love, freedom and sacrifice, of laying down one's life for another… on servanthood.  All of creation is groaning and waiting for us to get it (Romans 8:22).  We all have one Father, through whom all the families have received their name (Ephesians 3:14-19).  When we all receive in fullness the Spirit of adoption, the mistrust, completion and vying for prominence will cease.  We will become one people with a myriad of differences that enhance our oneness.  We will say of each other, “you are my people.”  We belong to each other!
 

We pray that you will prosper and be in joyful in the Lord.  We so enjoy hearing from you.

Dan and Patty