BELONGING

Belonging is difficult to determine, much less define. Upon introspection, what we find to our dismay is that we often belong more to our self than to anyone else. Though we say we ‘belong to the Lord,’ or ‘we belong to the kingdom,’ or to this group or that; we many times belong because we do so by transaction and truth from the scriptures or cultural perspective more than actual reality and experience. To believe what is true is imperative to our faith and understanding but to walk in the daily joy and strength of such knowledge can be a real task.

John, an apostle, wrote more on our full relationship with the Father than did the other apostles. The little book of First John may be taken as a dissertation upon the life of God as it is revealed and imparted to humanity. He began with the Life as it is first manifested in Jesus. There is no, or little, allusion to how our Lord himself becomes what he is in our humanity; he is simply in his spiritual human perfection what God reveals or manifests himself to be in our humanity and he indicates that this revelation is open to all who desire it by faith. John saw the Life that has come down from God perfected and glorified in the Son of Man; and in full confidence and assurance of participation in Jesus. Every one of us can have that Life.

“I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” Jesus