This is a family picture of mom, sister, and myself taken about 3 months after my stroke. It's funny that now much of what I say relates to life after this stroke thing, but it is only now (10 months after the fact) that I'm beginning to understand the impact of what has happened. One fact, that until recently I had come to grips with, is the difficulty of posting to this blog because of the effort it took to write and communicate what I truly wanted to express. That might seem odd to some, but it is a real fact, that often I would substitute even thoughts, because I lacked either the means to spell or logically place thoughts in an order that I wanted, but thank God He is not finished with healing my, body, mind, and most important my spiritual life.
I've recently gone through studying the epistle to the Ephesians, and with that study I've read many sermons by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jone, from his huge work "An Exposition of Ephesians" in six volumes. From this reading I have become aware of what is involved in being part of a family, both of the natural family we are born in, and then also the family that we have after entering the family of God.
19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, Ephesians 2:19 (ESV)
There are many points to make about what being a family is all about, but for today I want to focus of the fact that it's all about the blood lines.
"So the second point I would make, my second principle, would be this, to stress the vital importance of knowing which we are. Now here again Paul’s illustration helps us. How does it become clear and obvious whether we are strangers and foreigners (sojourners), or whether we really belong? Eventually it always becomes clear. It does not matter how intimate a relationship may be, however friendly you may be with someone who is living with you in the family. We have a saying that puts it all in a nutshell—After all, blood is thicker than water. Certain points arise in life when actually the one thing that matters is the blood relationship. And it is at that point that the poor stranger begins to feel that he is only a stranger after all. He may have felt for years that the distinctions were irrelevant and may have said: I am one of them, I am a member of the family and have always been treated as a member of the family. But suddenly, in a crisis, he discovers that he is not. ‘Blood is thicker than water.’ You cannot explain these things; you may even say that there is a great deal that is wrong about such a situation. That may well be, but that is how it works out in practice. Something fundamental, elemental, suddenly comes to the surface; and you will find a whole family that may have been at sixes and sevens suddenly becoming one. And the poor stranger is conscious that he is an outsider." [Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (1972). God's Way of Reconciliation (studies in Ephesians, chapter 2) (295). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.]
Through the experiences I've gone through, I have gained a deeper understanding about the relationship of my family given to me from birth, and about my second birth's relationship with God's family. The first option of being born puts us within the blood line that is our natural family, the second is the blood that was shed by God's Son. In the time after this event, both have been invaluable to me, and made me aware of each, and the joy that each has to give.
More later, it was just great to do this and not spend hours!!! like the last post which took about 3 hours.
