When my wife and I first moved to Mexico in August of 2016, it was challenging. We left a lot of our close friends and family and moved to a place where we didn’t know anyone. I had been in Lynchburg, VA for 7 years and had grown so much during those years. In Virginia is where most of my closest friends lived, where I met my wife, and God grounded me in community.
Leaving all of our friends and community was difficult, but we trusted in God’s great plan. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been thinking a lot about our identity as Christians. As Christians, we have many things in common. We have a common father, creator, spirit, desire, love, joy, inheritance, and mission. In Christ, we are made family. This crosses over race, cultural diversity, and age difference. Take a look at the chart below as an example for us.
- NOW: We can be connected to others by what we do right now. What sports we play and what phase of life we are in and even where you work. Someone who is single and not married may connect better with other single people. The same goes for those who are married and even those who have kids. If you like to do a specific activity, you are going to connect most to those who like to do the same activity.
- THEN: Think about those you grew up with. You may have had really good friends growing up, but you may not even talk to them anymore. Times change and the relationships we have change over time. How one person raises as a child may connect them to other families who have similar ideals.
- GOSPEL: The first two reveal how we have connected with other people. As you can see, these relationships change and friendship and how we connect with people are usually determined by these two. However, for Christians, we are made family by the grace of God and can connect with other Christians regardless of our stage of life because of our commonality in Christ.
What I love about the Gospel is that is doesn’t matter what race you are, culture you live in, or language you speak, we can connect with all Christians because of the Gospel. The Gospel breaks all barriers and allows us to have close relationships because of Jesus.
The Gospel brings us to common ground with each other making us citizens of an eternal inheritance. May we never forget the power of the Gospel to bring people from all walks of life into citizenship.
-Daniel McDonald, GEM Missionary