Enjoying the Grace of Belonging

One of the great hungers of the human heart is belonging. We want to be part of something. We want to be wanted by someone.

“Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35)

The context of the passage is that Jesus is speaking to a crowd gathered in a house somewhere in the neighborhood of Galilee. The passage just before it is one in which the crowds who gathered were so large that often Jesus and his followers didn’t have even a moment to get a bite to eat.

Listen now to Mark 3:31-35:

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

We unpack that amazing last sentence: "Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” With this knowledge and understanding we know we belong.