I’m All Grown Up, But I’m Still a Kid

I embraced every minute of precious family time during Thanksgiving week. My family is right up there at the top of my “gratitude” list. We are a diverse family with diverse interests and diverse ways of life. None of us were cut from the same mold, but we have this one thing in common – we are family. I came from a middle-class family. We didn’t have much, but we had all we needed. We knew love, but by no means did we know royalty and wealth, or the social graces that went along with it.

But, then, one day, I came into a royal family — the Family of God — not as a result of merit or anything I earned or was born into, but I was adopted into this wonderful Family of God. It was simply because I asked to come in, and I believed the Father of this royal family has a very special Son Who paid a hefty price for me to be welcomed into the family. I didn’t have to pay my way in — I just had to believe in HIS royal family. And, guess what! You have been invited into the FAMILY, too! The invitation goes out to “Whoever believes in HIM…..”

There are no adults in the Family of God. Father God only has children. Adults complicate things. They try to figure out what’s next, how, why, where and when. Kids just say “Okay!” They just believe. I believed. Stuff happens. No problem. My Father has everything under control. And, He keeps telling us to “Be like children” who just believe.

While doing a lot of my holiday baking, I watched a sweet and tender Hallmark Christmas movie. I’ll admit it. I’m a “Hallmark” junkie – just knowing that the movie is going to end with a sappy, predictable ending, makes me happy. I saw one where two children whose Mom and Dad had died in an automobile accident. Their very wealthy grandfather (who they had never met) asked them to come to visit him at his royal mansion in England. Once they were there, they had all the privileges that their lineage provided — sitting at the grandfather’s table, eating the best of foods, wearing elaborate clothes provided by the grandfather, being served by the maids and butlers. They didn’t even know their grandfather before, but all their lives, royalty was waiting for them. But, to live in the grandfather’s home, they had to change some of their rough ways. And they did because they wanted to please the grandfather. And when they pleased him, he just kept pouring on the blessings to them.

Once we come into the royal Family of God, we should have a hard time being disobedient children. If we daily make a purpose to NOT disappoint our Heavenly Father, He’ll keep pouring His blessings on us. If we abide in Him, and His Word abides in us, then we’ll have a hard time messing up. We just don’t want to take a chance on disappointing our Father. Still, I have disappointed Him. But when I did, His grace flowed out to me. His nature IS love and grace. It’s going to be Christmas in just a few weeks, and if we gave our kids a gift, we would never want them to turn to us and say, “What do I owe you for this?” No, we would simply say to them, “I so love you and want to bless you.”
The man in the movie had to discipline those grandkids from time to time for being naughty. And there’s also a judgment side to God, but if we obey Him, we’ll never see it. There’s a judgment side to us, but if our kids obey us, they’ll never see that judgment.

Today, our Heavenly Father has His arms open wide to His naughty or nice kids out there. He’s ready to bless them. He’s ready to invite them to sit at His royal table and feast and dine with Him. It’s ours for the taking. Now let’s throw our hands up in the air and shout out, “CHOOSE ME!”

1 John 3:1 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.”