We are not our own. Our genetics come from elsewhere: our mother and father and of course from beyond them as well. But it's more than genes, we are made up of what those around us contribute, what they input and what they teach and give. They feed and strengthen. For 44 years I have been given an unceasing stream of support from my 5 siblings. Of course the love and the sacrifice of my parents makes up the foundation and support, but it has been the extraordinary generosity and hospitality of the Fab five that has sustained me.
I am so thankful that I have moved beyond trying to calculate how much of it I deserve. That can weigh a person down. Or trying to plan a way to somehow pay them back for the financial, emotional, and spiritual support they have given to me so freely. It almost insults the Grace they have shown, because I don't deserve it and I can't repay it. That's not a self deprecating statement, that is a fact. Those who love us and raise us, they give us more than we can ever account for or at times more than we can even see. I am not my own, I am the product of those who had always been there. It has been the love and acceptance of Jesus that has allowed me to just enjoy that which is given. And I pray I can give freely to others that which has been given to me. Both receiving the blessing and having the awareness to enjoy the blessing is The Double Blessing of Christ. He gives and he gave all, but equally important is that he has given us a way to enjoy that blessing and indeed to see blessing when it seems like there is none. We are able to enjoy each other in all circumstances, with no expectation, just persistent Joy. The joy of my siblings, of my family is multiplied a 1000 fold because of the joy I have in Christ. Christ is my Treasure and they are my Treasure in him.
"For where your Treasure is, your Heart will be also." Matthew 6.21
