Good morning…
I wake to remnants of our oldest son’s engagement party. A homemade congratulations banner. A line-up of photos from their eight months of dating. A frig full of leftover food and beverages. Remnants of a wonderful whirlwind weekend.
Just now, as I sat down to blog about our one-of-a-kind Saturday, at 1:40 am came a rustle at the front door. Sharp barks from our little dog. A click of the lock and a turn of the door handle. In walked our tired, happy son. I had forgotten that our twenty-eight year old would be sleeping here for a third night in a row, since his apartment is twelve minutes south and his fiancee’s married siblings, with whom she is staying, live twelve minutes north. Our home rests balanced in the middle. After the engaged couple left last night’s impromptu dinner of Willie’s take-out with our immediate family, I had locked the doors, turned out the light, and climbed into bed, totally forgetting that our son would be returning. Up to write in the middle of the night, I was grateful to greet him before he went upstairs to sleep.
Now scrolling back over the pictures on my phone, I realize that this weekend our family gained a new daughter-to-be at the same time our son gained a new family-to-be. Our merging families multiply such joy.
Long ago, God said to Noah, “As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it” (Genesis 9:7, NIV). Later God said to Abram, “I have plans to make a great people from your descendants. And I am going to put a special blessing on you and cause your reputation to grow so that you will become a blessing and example to others….Through your descendants, all of the families of the earth will find their blessing in you“ (Genesis 12:1-3, VOICE). A generation later, God said to Issac: “You can be assured that I will honor the solemn vow I made to your father, Abraham: I will make your children and their children’s children as numerous as the stars in the sky…Through your descendants all the peoples of the earth will discover true blessing,” (Genesis 26:3b-4, VOICE).
It was all laid out beforehand in Scripture that God would set things right with non-Jews by faith. Scripture anticipated this in the promise to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed in you” (Galatians 3:8, MSG). How amazing it is to witness God’s promise to the first faithful followers trickle down to come true in the heart of our families. What a fun, fruitful process of multiplication!
As God’s intimate presence spreads out through our families, generation by generation, all the peoples of the earth will discover true blessing.
…Sue…
