Belonging... Together

 “You also were included in Christ… you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”
~Ephesians 1:13

The rhythm of life for children in school has returned to its natural tempo. Many of us remember Labor Day as the weekend that called us back to school. These days, it is the first school holiday weekend.

I recall some of the excitement of back-to-school shopping with mom. New folders and fresh paper; pencils without teeth marks and erasers that didn’t smear; a lunch box with this year’s favorite superhero, book covers, clean gym clothes and some new clothes were all included in the annual ritual. Then came the part I dreaded…

My mom would get out a permanent marker and write my name on all those new things. I never got used to that. I would be mortified every time it happened. Even my underwear had my name on the label!

But mom’s plan worked. Rarely did I lose my books or possessions. And I’d never dare leave clothing behind in the locker room! And on those occasions when an easily distracted little boy left things behind, it was clear who they belonged to.

Even though I was stubborn and easily embarrassed by all these marks of ownership, I didn’t have a choice. Actually, I was slow to learn that my friends had moms just like me. Ultimately we were all thankful that our moms were unshakable and insisted on putting their mark on our possessions. They marked them because they loved us and knew we were likely to lose things we all valued.

The Bible tells us that our Father in Heaven has got a marker of his own. It’s “water-soluble,” but won’t wash off. In the waters of baptism, God got out his Marker and wrote down his mark on each of us. The words he wrote were simple: his name. Read Ephesians (above) and we can confidently say that it is our heavenly Father’s determination to love us that moved that marker across our lives. It is the Son’s blood that provided the ink so we could be “marked in him.” And it is the Holy Spirit’s who forms the “seal” to make sure it won’t wash off.

Each of us has the mark, “Father, Son, Holy Spirit.” That means that we not only “belong” to the Triune God; it also means we belong “together.” We didn’t choose one another, but God chose us for each other. This is an important discovery for Christians to have about one another. Just as it took some time to appreciate mom’s mark on my things, it can take some time to appreciate that God’s mark means we belong…together.

40 Days of Community is helping us to know and appreciate one another better. As the song says, it is “binding us together with cords that cannot be broken.” The relationships that are brought together in the name of the Triune God are forever. They endure because of the faithfulness of God’s mark and seal on us—even when we rub each other the wrong way.

40 Days of Community is also helping us to creatively write on the canvas of our baptismal mission. That’s God’s calling and purpose for us together. The ink that flows from Jesus’ love for us has unlimited resources. He sends us out and tells us to color His world with our love for one another. He sends us out to make his mark on the very people he died to save. He sends us out to welcome the stranger and the outcast, the embarrassed and the stubborn proud. He sends us out to show one another, we belong… together.