"As your true Father, I observe you with unfailing love. I watch your comings and your goings and monitor your life so that you do not wander too far.

"As I watch you, I am continually blessed to be your Father. You honor Me as you represent Jesus properly. You honor other members of your family, when you consider them with the same heart that He does. You bring joy to all of Us, as you are mindful of those who hurt and are in need.

"When your perspectives become clouded, I make sure that you regain your focus. I direct you to the proper path and bring you back to right thinking through many ways. I know that some of them are uncomfortable, but they are necessary.

"You see, I desire that you grow up bright and strong in the knowledge of Who I am, who you are, and who you represent. We are family, Father and children."

II Sam. 14:14b NIV

"But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him."

John 1:10-14 NIV

10) He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

11) He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

12) Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -

13) children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

14) The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Eph. 3:17-19 AMP

17) May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,

18) That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];

19) [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!"

When we really understand how important the concept of family is to God, it's no wonder Satan has worked so hard to destroy it. We have become so used to the modern family that the concepts of a loving, available father, and devoted, parent-honoring children; and the incredible power of a unified, selfless effort toward common goals elude us as part of the family unit. We have lost our purpose because we have missed the plan of God concerning His way of letting us know, first, that we belong to something bigger than ourselves; and then, second, why we belong.

Because we are in Christ, we are born into an eternal family under a gracious, loving Father. We belong to a God-ordained unit, flowing in love toward Him and each other. At least that is the way our Father desires it.

Help me, Lord,

Jim Corbett