Images of our relationship with God
by Charles Bertelsmeier
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But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ (Hebrews 3:6).
The Bible provides many word pictures of the relationship between God and his people. Parent and children; groom and bride; ruler and subjects; the cornerstone of a building and the bricks making up the walls; head and parts of the body; potter and a clay vessel.
Here we have the picture of a household with the son and heir in charge. In thinking about this, my thoughts went to the TV show Downton Abbey, filmed at Highclere Castle in England. Many people were involved in managing the household and the estate in the past.
Each person in the household had a job to do, usually beginning as a trainee under supervision, moving up to a skilled worker able to work unsupervised, then to a supervisor in charge of several people. Eventually, the person may be sufficiently equipped to take over the house or even the estate; but that couldn’t happen unless they were born into the owner’s family or married into the owner’s family.
In God’s household, it is very different. We are all heirs in waiting, still going through the progression of training but, at all times, legally adopted into the family as joint-heirs with the Son. But that doesn’t mean we naturally know how to live as part of God’s family. Thankfully, our heavenly brother has provided us with a tutor, the Holy Spirit, to stay beside us and teach us how to live as his brothers and sisters in the heavenly family.
However, our verse also reminds us that there will be challenges along the way, especially ones that suggest life will be better living outside of the constraints of the heavenly family. Our Heavenly Father loves and understands us so well that he knows it is futile to hold us back against our will and will let us go. And like the prodigal son, we will be welcomed back with open arms once we have the courage (and maybe desperation) to admit our mistakes and return.
In your day-to-day living, how conscious are you that you are a very beloved child of God and a member of his family?
Heavenly Father, thank you again that your Son loved me so much that he did everything needed to enable me to become a member of your family. Thank you, too, for your Holy Spirit going with me each day to be my tutor, training me in how to live as a member of your family. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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