Belonging

“Do you ever look at your friends and think, ‘I am so glad these weirdos are mine.’?” This was my favorite Facebook meme this week. It so sums up how I feel about my tribe, the unique blessed group of flawed favorites of God that I am privileged to do life with. I can’t help but think that Jesus had similar thoughts as he sat around the table with his own rag-tag bunch of friends.

There He sits breaking bread with his disciples knowing one would betray, one would deny, most would run away in fear. But they are His and that is what matters. Belonging is a powerful thing.

I remember standing in my college dorm room a hundred years ago or so looking at the Precious Moments poster hanging on my wall. It showed a little girl with a lamb next to her gazing at a hill in the distance. On the hill were three crosses; the caption read, “For Me.” On that particular lonely, busy day I was overwhelmed by those two simple words and began to cry as the truth of John 3:16 became personal. Belonging is a powerful thing.

For Me. For you and your own bunch of beloved, flawed favorites He paid a terrible price because we belong to Him and belonging is a powerful motivator. So here I am this morning listening to an old song reminding myself, “I belong to you Lord; you have called me by name and I belong to you.” Here I am celebrating and giving thanks for those who belong to me. Belonging is a powerful thing.

As we enter into this Holy Week, I pray we would remember the truth of 1 Corinthians 6. We are not our own. We were bought with a price. Belonging is a powerful, costly gift. Remember whose you are!

Those verses, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 contain this simple, challenging coordinating conjunction, therefore. “You were bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body,” writes Paul. This week as you celebrate your belonging, explore what your own therefore is. I was bought with a price therefore I am going to Africa this summer to do VBS with kids so they can discover that belonging to Jesus is a powerful thing!