Daily Devotional Thought--For the Family

Collect of the Week

Lord Jesus Christ, in Your deep compassion You rescue us from whatever may hurt us. Teach us to love You above all things and to love our neighbors as ourselves; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

1 John 1:7

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Devotion

In the name of + Jesus.

Unless your children is adopted (and if they are, what a wondrous gift you have given them!!), what binds you together with your children is your blood.  They, and their children after them, will be your “blood relatives.”  Because you share their blood, even if/when they get on your nerves, or frustrate you, there is no denying them.  They’re family.  They’re blood.

In yesterday’s Bible class, in studying the Sacrament of the Altar, we looked at the above passage, and we saw how, in the Church, the blood of Jesus binds us together in a similar way.  As John writes, “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”  And those who are cleansed by the blood of Jesus share in His righteousness through the forgiveness of sins.  Regardless of their own biological blood lines, and despite many physical differences, and even when our sinful behaviors might otherwise tear us apart and divide us, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin, and gives us fellowship with one another.

Like a family that shares the same blood, the Church shares the blood of Jesus.  His blood binds us together as His very body, so that we might love and serve one another as fellow redeemed.  Even more, this is a family that won’t ever be separated from one another, but will dwell together in this fellowship into eternal life.

Obviously, those who live in your household will share a special bond with another, even after our children have grown, and begun their own families.  But when understand the cleansing gift of the blood of Jesus, we begin to see those even outside of our own households, as being a part of the household of faith (Gal. 6:10).  There is no denying them.  They’re family.  They’re blood.  In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Prayer

With the blood of Your Son, you bind us together, and make us one.  Teach us, O Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, to rejoice in the household of faith, that our love might be shown to all; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.