I have a friend who is a great-grandmother now. As I was visiting with her on New Year’s Eve, she told me an amazing tale. One of her grandchildren had a baby who turned out to be extremely precocious. This child began speaking in complete sentences when she was only 6 months old!

Think of it: a baby who is just beginning to crawl, who may not even be able to hold a spoon and feed herself, but who can put complete thoughts into abstract terms. Amazing! What was even more amazing was what she told her parents: she said that God had allowed her to choose her parents, and that she had chosen them.

This touched my heart, for although I was not eyewitness to this, never knew this family, and have no way of knowing for sure that this is a true story, it seems to mirror the heart and character of God the Father.

In the Bible, God told the prophet Jeremiah,

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee… Jeremiah 1:5

David said in the Psalms,

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14

As I dwell on these verses, I get the idea that in the midst of all of our medical knowledge and all of our worldviews, we really do not have any concept of the amazing, wonderful, and unknown capabilities that God has built into each and every one of us.

I am a biologist and in my studies I have never come across anything as complex, intricate and foundational as the single living cell. It is more complex than a huge metropolis: It has thousands of receptor sites, or ‘loading docks’ on its surface, complex internal transport systems, waste disposal, energy production and energy storage, internal, as well as external communications (think of having telephone lines to three-trillion, or so other huge cities), defense systems, both internal and external, memory, reproductive capabilities, and much, much more.

A cell is the smallest viable, living thing, and yet your body could not function as it does without every cell working perfectly. If one cell begins proliferating out of control, you have cancer. If cells begin dying, you have degenerative diseases. If cells become inflamed, you have arthrtis. Any of these problems is enough to keep your body from functioning as it should, and it all starts with a single cell.

You are like that single cell. God made you to function perfectly, and you have capabilities and gifts that you have not even begun to explore yet. Within yourself you are mighty. Yet, you are a part of a much more intricate organization: your spiritual family of God, and your earthly famiy that you were born into.

There is a story in the Bible about three servants who were given different amounts of money, or talents, by their employer. The first two doubled theirs, but the third simply hid his so that he could return it to his employer. His employer was not happy with this. My paraphrase of his tirade against the third servant goes like this: ‘You wicked servant. If you cannot be faithful in a little, how can I trust you with a lot? Take away what he has and give it to the other two!’ (Paraphrased – Matthew 25:26). To me, this illustrates the importance of the small, foundational things in each of our lives. If the small things are not in order, how can we expect the bigger things to work as they should?

You are most precious to God. He is your Creator, the one who formed you and gave you life. The part of you that is spiritual draws life from Him. He does not force this relationship on you, but He has given you the ability to choose whether or not to embrace your spiritual family. Even if you have failed in the past to the point that you think that you could never approach heaven because of what you have done, this does not diminish His love for you.

Every relationship takes work, and He is willing to work with you if you are willing to work with Him. He even sent His Son, Jesus, to make sure that you have a way to be adopted into His family, and to understand how to become a part of His family.

In our current culture, Christianiaty is ‘socially incorrect’, but actually we are no more or less popular now than in early Rome during the first few centuries after Jesus lived, when Christians were regularly persecuted and slaughtered. Now as then, we Christians must stand for our faith in the midst of adversity.

Why has Christianity been so attacked? You can probably think of a few reasons, but the bottom line is because you have a spiritual enemy. You can call him Satan, or the devil, if you wish. He hates God and his greatest pleasure would be to rob God of your presence for all eternity.

You are precious to your heavenly Father and you are precious to your earthly family. Your earthly family is a ‘cell’ that is a part of the body of Christ on earth. Satan has been working overtime to make the cells sick, to cause misunderstanding between children and parents, hatred between brothers and sisters, unfaithfulness between spouses, disloyalty and disrespect among the ones who should be the most supportive and nourishing for each other.

Being a part of a family is an incredible gift. You are God’s gift to your family and your family is a gift to you. A single cell will not last long if it is removed from the body because the body provides not only food, but protection, support, and many other needs.

God knows you intimately. He placed you within your own family on this earth. Cherish each other as you grow in Christ.

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32

Blessings to you,
Chandra Lynne