This weekend we took a journey to Chilly Chicago to attend and celebrate our daughter Bonnie's graduation from North Park University. We were touched and honored that 13 family members also made the trek to help Bonnie celebrate a huge milestone in her life.
My sister has 4 kids and 3 of them are girls. Between the two of us, we had 5 girls in 5 years! These cousins are like siblings to my daughters, and I love them like my own children. My parents also came; my Mom postponed a surgery so she could be there~she never likes to miss anything.
The night after the graduation we had a dinner and then we all crowded into a hotel room where we blessed Bonnie. Each person gave a verbal blessing that they had also written down for Bonnie to keep. After everyone was finished, we laid hands on Bonnie and prayed for her future. It was powerful. The Bible says that our words either give life or they kill. That night, there was a lot of life flowing around!
I know that what happened Saturday night was the power of community. It doesn't have to take a natural family for it to happen. The Bible also says that the family of God is even more important and permanent than our own family.
My vision for Missio Lux is to see many family' of God "do life together." As we are present for one another for the important and the mudane things of life, we can be the ones to gather around and speak lifegiving blessings. We can be the ones to pray for the graduates embarking into the world, or the kindergartner going to school for the first time, or the husband starting a new job, or the teen struggling in school or with his friends. We can be "family to one another" and by this the world will know us by our love.
3 comments:
Since we subscribed to POSTS, at the bottom of the page, your new blogs come through on our desk top along with all the MSNBC stories -looks very official.
I'm so glad you had a good trip to Chicago. How great to hear about Bonnie's well deserved send off from College (oops University!) and the wonderful time of sharing blessings ~ especially by sisters and cousin-sisters.
A friend of mine from California sent me this last week... You know I tend to think some of the "sister" stuff gets a little sappy... but this seems applicable:
"When building a home,
2x4s are hammered together on bearing walls so they can bear more weight. This is called “sistering.” When women stand shoulder to shoulder and sister one another, we are stronger, and we make a positive difference."
Thanks for being a sister to me. You are the family of God in action, and I look forward to "doing more life together."
This Christmas reminds me of one many years ago, when my family took us on "Summer vacation" to another state, never realizing that we had actually fled my childhood home, never to return.
Christmas that year was bleak. We went from our "normal" decorated home; twinkle lights wrapped around the banister, pine boughs and holly liberally used throughout, the stain glass windows reflecting colored lights from the Christmas tree, and the wonderful, delectable smells of a traditional Christmas turkey dinner wafting from the kitchen – to a home barely furnished and sitting at a table with no tree, no Christmas lights, and our Mom apologizing that she had to serve us hotdogs for Christmas dinner.
The “power of community” was at work that Christmas while during our prayer our doorbell rang and we looked at one another wondering who would come to our home on Christmas? We didn’t know anyone since we had just moved to the area across the Pacific Ocean. My mom elected me out of the 12 children to answer the door. God’s Christmas miracle was at our doorstep in the form of a decorated Christmas tree, a box of beautifully wrapped Christmas gifts with each of our names on them, and a complete cooked Christmas dinner, with dessert! The community had heard of our plight and banded together to give us a Christmas I will always and forever remember.
This Christmas also has revealed God’s amazing Grace once again in the “power of community” by the “sistering” of the women I have been blessed with through Missio Lux and its Healing Ministry Group. Because of these women’s faithful prayers, love and friendship, we have been blessed in being able to celebrate Christmas this year.
May God richly bless you and may you know His Joy this Christmas!
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