When I was ten, my mom made me order my own food at a restaurant for the first time and I could say that was the scariest moment of my life at that time. Thinking about it now, it seems like such a small thing. All I had to do was look up at the waitress and tell her that I wanted chicken nuggets with a side of fries, but in my little head, I saw failure as the only option. It really does seem silly because now I am stoked to tell the waitress that I want chicken nuggets.
The reason things like that seem so daunting is that it is scary to walk alone. The reason I knew I could order on my own is that I realized I had my mom to clarify my order when I would stumble over my order. This is the same image we get when we talk about family on a mission. Life doesn’t have to seem as scary when we have people walking side by side, hand in hand next to us.
In Mark 2 we see a great example of what family on mission looks like. Jesus was in Capernaum and people filled the home He was in so that there was no more room. Four people did not let that stop them from bringing a paralytic man to Jesus. These friends of the paralytic dug through the roof and lowered their friend down to Jesus. Not only did they not let the crowded building stop them, but they also brought their friend to the roof and dug right through it. This here shows just how great the determination and faith these people had in Jesus. They had faith that Jesus would heal their friend because they lowered him from the roof knowing it would be a lot harder to lift him back up. This just shows that they counted on their friend walking out of the room. The paralytic’s friends had bold faith in Jesus that He would help their friend.
Jesus did just that, but first He forgave the man of His sins. This probably caught the men on the roof off guard, they had come for their friend to be healed, not forgiven. Jesus knew the importance of forgiveness and then went a step further in healing the man.
Family on mission is such a beautiful image when we stop and think about what it really means. It means saying yes to accepting the mission of sharing Jesus to those around us. The paralyzed man couldn’t get himself to Jesus on his own, it was the helping hands of his friends that helped him. They walked with him in faith and even dug through a roof to get him to Jesus.
We can walk with confidence knowing that not only do we have others around us, but we also have the Holy Spirit. That fear that stems from the idea of being alone in a situation is then uprooted. Suddenly things that were scary before look a whole lot smaller with people by our side. We are called to be a family on a mission, that mission is to bring people to Jesus. Let’s go out and walk in confidence side by side like the family we are called to be.
Hailey
Comments