A Big, Big House

I’m on vacation right now and writing to you from Cincinatti, Ohio, my daughters house. On this vacation we are visiting family. I don’t know how many of you know about my family, but we are a mixed bag of folks. We are from diverse places like Indiana, Ohio, Taiwan, Tennesee, Kentucky and Florida. We speak different languages: English, Chinese, and Spanish. We are muliti-generational: First, second, third and tomorrow even fouth generation will all be together. Right now there 10 of us in a normally 3 member home. We’re sleeping everywhere. We are diverse, but most of all, we are family. We’re all loved and welcomed. We have diverse perspectives but we make room for these differing perspectives. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen some of my family and many of them look differently than the last time I saw them. But, they look quite good.

The church is like that. We are diverse in every way, but we are loved and welcomed into the family of God. Audio Adrenaline sings a song called, “Big House.” The lyrics are as follows:

Verse 1
I dont know where you lay your head.
Or where you call your home. I dont know where you eat your meals
Or where you talk on the phone. I dont know if you got a cook
A butler or a maid.
I dont know if you got a yard
With a hammock in the shade.

but, Come and go with me,
To my fathers house,
Come and go with me,
To my fathers house

Chorus
Its a big big house,
A big big yard,
Its my fathers house.

In this big family of mine, there are times when we get along just beautifully and there are times when relationships are strained. That’s normal and natural. However, if we want the relationship to last and to florish we must make allowances for the differences we find in each other. Our diversity brings us strength and allows us to understand other perspectives and actually understand God Himself. God is a God all all people. He is not catagorized by ethicity, language or geography, not even gender. He is the God of all, and we all are His folks. Let’s enjoy the dverse perspectives we bring to the house.