While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You." But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! "For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother." (Matthew 12:46-50)

Tonight, after the younger children had retired for the night, my oldest son was regaling me with the tales of the things he and his siblings have been doing recently. His conversation was peppered with, “my brother....” and “my sister...” and they flowed so naturally from his lips that you would think he had known them all his life, instead of a mere five-and-a-half months!

It reminded me of the verses in the Bible wherein Jesus discusses familial biology. We are born into families, all of us, but what truly matters are the spiritual relationships we form. Jesus and his half-brother, James, shared a mother, and thus were brothers genetically. However, through close examination of the Scriptures you see the evolution of James’ faith. John 7:5 says that even His own “brothers did not believe in Him.” Yet later we see in Galatians 1:9, the Bible refers to the physical brother of Jesus as one of the apostles, so clearly James came to a point of faith and belief. As our Scripture text states, it is this spiritual familial relationship that transcends all earthy relationships (biological, adoptive, marriage ...).

The fact that we can connect with others on a spiritual level because of our love for one another in, and for, Christ, is such an amazingly beautiful thing.

When we are adopted by God, He takes people who may or may not be related by blood, and creates in them a family of believers, many of whom have closer ties than any earthly brother or sister could ever share. One of my best friends often tells me that I am a closer sister to him than his sibling, because we can talk about spiritual things that others just don’t “get.”

I’m not writing this to “bash” birth families – please don’t take that message away from this blog! My point is, that despite the fact that some of us may not have known each other long, nor were born into the same biological family, we can still form deep attachments that make us feel as though we’ve known each other forever, and that maybe we can live forever, together in Him in Heaven, prayerfully, when that time comes.

Photo credit: Marie Stroughter