The Family of God

 

Some of you know that I have worked at Grace Baptist Academy for thirty years. During that time, I have seen many, many students come and go. A teacher’s life is one of perennial heartbreak. We learn to love the young people who sit before us day after day, and then they leave. Next year—same thing. But it’s also a life of much joy and reward.

Recently I had the privilege of attending an event where GBA alumnus Drew Box was talking to the graduating class. Drew talked about his first days as a student at Grace, the people he met, and what those people continue to mean to him. He went on to review various memorable times in his life when a fellow alumnus was there to help or to celebrate special events—everything from an emergency room visit to a child’s birth. Then Jeff Reese talked to the young people about his experiences connected with GBA. I must say, I was moved to tears. (I cry easily these days. I have learned to accept it.)

Both men discussed their view of the “Grace family.” This is a term one hears often around the school. Like a family, students are grouped together in classes without much choice. Teachers and staff take the assignments we’re given and teach the students who show up in our classrooms. And like a family, we learn to work together and to develop a love and respect for one another that deepens with shared experiences and our connection to Grace.

I thought of that relationship when Roy Seals was speaking on Sunday morning. Though we don’t know personally the people he knows, though we have never met that good doctor and her husband, they are part of our family. We share a kinship with them, and we are working with them from a distance to do God’s work in the Dominican Republic. In fact, we at Grace have such a privilege to work with missionaries all over the world. All true believers are part of God’s family. I kept wanting to burst out in song: “I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God!”

Brothers and sisters we have never met are all over the world. They’re part of our family. How will we respond when they need help? I once heard another story about a young man who had a wreck in Atlanta. He was wearing a Grace Academy t-shirt, and someone, seeing that shirt, stopped to help him because of a family member in Chattanooga who goes to Grace. Christians around the globe don’t have identifying shirts to wear, but we do have the Holy Spirit “bear[ing] witness . . . that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). You have likely been as encouraged as I have by the Christian love we at Grace—church and school alike—have felt from other members of our  Christian family in our recent difficulties. The folks who let us use their facilities are just helping out a needy bunch of relatives. While we don’t quite understand God’s timing or methods, we can appreciate that he placed us all in his family where we can receive love and care from one another.

Let’s look for opportunities to help out our family when we can, and when we get to the big family reunion in eternity, what great stories we can tell one another.

--Sherry Poff