The Wonderful Unlikeliness of the Family of God

Thinking it a long shot, I wrote to the missionary family anyway. "I know you live in England, and well, I'm going to be in Liverpool. Any chance we might meet up?" I didn't know if this family lived on the clear other side of the country, but I figured it was worth a shot. 

He wrote me back to tell me that he doesn't live in Liverpool, but he knows someone who does. He arranged for that person, who is a pastor of a church in Liverpool, to contact me about the possibility of living with his family during my study at the School of Tropical Medicine. So then the pastor contacted me with an explanation that he would be out of town for my arrival, but he set up for me to stay with a family in their church. 

So when people asked me where I was staying in Liverpool and how I knew this host family, my answer was simple: I don't! 

But that quickly changed as soon as I met them and as soon as they introduced me to the church. We instantly connected because of the faith and hope that we share even though backgrounds and stories and cultures may be different. That's the amazing thing about the family of God - we are dispersed all over the world, which means that wherever we go (with very few exceptions), we have a family that we automatically belong to and that we trust and love. We have a home where we feel welcome and loved and connected no matter where we find oursleves in the world. 

This is my new favorite thing about travel - not just the sights, but the opportunity to meet and share life with my brothers and sisters and family from around the globe. The church. No matter where you go, you find them! And when you find and connect with them, you are mutually encouraged as you share stories about the same God. 

When I showed up on Wednesday night with my host family, I recognized two familiar faces. Two girls that were in my tropical nursing class! I didn't even know they were Christians, yet here we were, all at the same church of all places in the middle of busy Liverpool. Who would have thought? An American, an Irishwoman, and a Canadian all sitting together on a pew in England. We smiled at the unlikeliness of the situation, yet we knew that the kingdom of God had made this so wonderfully normal and enjoyable. 

Oh how wonderful heaven will be, won't it? With every tongue, tribe, people, and nation joining together to praise God! The whole family finally all together. 

I'm traveling to Ireland at the end of the course, and again, I reached out to a missionary I know who served there, and he put me in touch with a family in the church to spend the night with. I don't know them, but we'll fix that soon, and I'll have another story about how big and wonderful the family of God is, and how God is doing great things in Ireland just like he's doing in England and America and Burkina Faso and all over the world.