Designed to be Included!

For Friday, January 3, 2025:

Genesis 1:27 NLT: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Things created alike tend to stick together. For example, most birds fly south for the winter, but we don’t find mallards in the same flying V with geese. A herd of sheep is just that – sheep! Don’t look for horses among the sheep. (Sheep chew grass right down to the roots! There’d be nothing left to sustain the horses!) Creepy-crawly things stay closer to the ground, and no one wants to live alongside bears and alligators! They keep to themselves. Fish live in schools and dolphins travel in pods, each sticking with their own kind.

God created mankind in His image, after His own kind. So friends, we were designed from the ground up to be members of God’s family, included in God’s community. I remember singing: “Come join the family, the family of God.” That’s a good idea, but we don’t have to JOIN – we’ve already been designed that way! Jesus taught us to pray to “our Father in heaven,” and he wasn’t wrong! Our heavenly Father loves us, cares for us and wants nothing but the best for us! He wants to include us in all that he is doing.

We are blessed to be included in the family of God. God, in His wisdom, intentionally designed us that way!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship