There are a lot of benefits of being a child of the living Lord, Jesus Christ. The most amazing of those, however, is the connection we have as brothers and sisters in the Lord….it’s a beautiful thing that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

This is especially conforting as I grow older and watch the size of my earthly family shrink. We were not a huge family to start with, and even as I have gotten older the number of births and deaths have been relatively the same and have kept it the about sane size.

AND YET! God knew how hard ghis life would be, and has given us this incredible gift of brotherhood!Mom’s recent surgery is an example. Since Mom goes to the same church we do, our whole church was of course right with us, praying and supporting us. But that’s not the sum total of our spiritual family. All three of us have other friends and extended family who are also children of the Lord, and they were praying as well! Then expand that by adding mine and Robert’s FB friends, and the numbers start to get bigger than I want to count! And finally, but probably not totally, I have been blessed with an amazing job, where I have been blessed with hundreds of new brothers and sisters! The biggest joy I found in her surgery time was the day of and the day after, when I went to three separate places, stores, and someone in each place asked me about her and I knew they were praying too..and praying not to just any God, but to THE God Who created everything!

Awesome, isn’t it? And this story goes on and on, as God adds new people to our family every day. So what’s the point? It’s this: never, ever, ever underestimate the size of or power of God’s church…your family! I forget that a lot. I hear the noise of this world drowning out the prayers and encouragement from my fellow believers. I see the news headlines daily and believe that I am in a minority group. I feel like I am a child again, with my sister and I playing softball with friends, having to join together with another family to face the family of nine next door who had a whole team by themselves! I forget to stop and leave ok around me, and count..yes, COUNT, those I see who I know love the Lord and are living for Him!

The world would have us believe, especially in certain parts of our coontry, that we as Christians are alone, pitiful, and dependent on our own puny resources as we walk through life. They want us to forget that true Biblical, comforting, encouraging help is only a phone call, text, FB post or Tweet away. Why? Because there is power in numbers. And we will ALWAYS have more! God is a majority all by Himself, but we get to “tag along” anyway as He uses us to work in His world!

The holidays are just around the corner, and that’s when it seems the whole world stops and gathers, and counts the number of their loved ones. But this year, when that time comes, let’s have the courage to look around and NOT be discouraged by who isn’t there. Let’s practice looking around NOW..and being reminded of how BIG our most important family really is! After all, there is power in numbers….and God calls us to remember what power we have in each other to face everything in life!

It was an extremely hot Saturday in our town, with temps over 90 degrees.  Our Chickfila, where I work, was overflowing all day.  There were traveling baseball team tournaments in town, and the ballfield is just across the street from our store.  We had served scores of ballplayers and their families breakfast that morning, and now it was lunch.  Several games had just ended, and we were standing room only in the dining room, with all the outside tables taken as well.

As usual on a summer Saturday, at least 50% of our customers were from out of town, just here to support their players.  As the line around the drive thru began to increase and wrap around the building, one of those “out-of-towners” was watching the scene in this picture unfold, and captured it.  Stephanie, who was working in the overflowing dining room, was cleaning some tables by the window and saw this man sitting outside, perched on a post, with a small duffel bag beside him. Overwhelmed with compassion, she filled a large drink cup with ice and water and took it outside. Stephanie not only gave the water to him, but she also stayed and talked with him.  The customer was hugely impressed, and managed to tell Stephanie how blessed she was by her actions and thank her.  Not only that, but she posted this picture on the store’s FB page, complimenting her again!  She ended her post saying “what a blessing she is to have as an employee and as a member of that community.”

That is very true. And to the world we live in, that would be the end of the story: man is good, we are all usually ready to help in times of trouble, how awesome is the human spirit. But that perspective completely misses what was really going on. Stephanie is a beautiful, Jesus loving, God serving child of His..and she was motivated by more than just his need for water! She understood what God might be up to..He might actually have been showing Her that HE wanted to demonstrate His love to this man, and that He was calling Stephanie to do something about it. And praise the Lord, she answered the call! And I know after talking with her later that she did let him know that Jesus was her motivation!

So why am I sharing this story? Because we, as believers in Jesus and children of His, need this reminder, especially after Hurricane Harvey and all the ministry there: God has an intense passion for us to be His hands and feet, and the world has an intense need to know WHY we are doing it!

There is nothing wrong with the Salvation Army, Red Cross, or any other humanitarian group who go and serve and work in disaster zones, no matter how big or small. There is absolutely an essential need for all the Goodwills out there who provide for needs every day in every possible way, and I support them every chance I get by donating stuff! And all those efforts by all those people provide immense relief from suffering and trials in caring for physical and emotional needs.

HOWEVER! Had representatives from all those groups been present with a bottle of cold water in their hands, Stephanie is the ONLY one, through Jesus, who could offer him so much more!! She was the ONLY one at that moment representing Jesus Christ and His incredible love, which she did. But there was ALSO someone watching, paying attention, and I believe they could also see the work of the Lord. And if they were not believers, who knows what impact it might eventually have on them??

As Stephanie and I talked later about this picture, she was laughing about how in a small town you can’t get away with anything..she grew up here and definitely knows that. She’s so right…but you also can’t get anything-good or bad-past a lost and dying world! Let’s remember that they are watching!