I just read today (somewhere in the Gospel of Luke) that the kingdom of heaven is a like a small seed that grows into a large tree and becomes home to the birds. This made me appreciate the local church of God in these difficult times. In our small church we have a number of people unemployed due to the economy, several with difficult marriages and others with debilitating physical difficulties. On Sunday mornings we all come together, and as one body we worship the Lord Jesus as he asked us to do by breaking of bread. This odd tradition He left for us is meant, among other things, to give us a sense of family, the kind that gets together regularly for a “sit-down” meal (fewer and fewer families, I am told, have a daily sit down together kind of meal, much less once a week). The family of God, comes to dinner weekly, so to speak, with a single focus in mind – the glory of the Lord. What a way to begin the week that we all face with such differing struggles of life—getting refocused on what is important and essential.

Then various members of the body kick into gear serving others, whether it is teaching Sunday School, providing praise music, working on setup and takedown (we meet in rented facilities), serving refreshments, preaching the word, greeting visitors, serving in nursery, stacking song books, cleaning up someone else’s mess, etc. Most of us get time to take part in the praise time and the teaching time. The body is working together for the glory of the Father and the building up of each other.

Then, our church is a bit weird, people like to stay afterward and just “be” together, sometimes up to a hour after the service is ended. Sipping on a hot or cold drink, munching on donuts or bagels and talking or watching, sometimes talking about the recent sports games, sometimes the economy, sometimes about spiritual thinks, sometimes praying for or encouraging one another concerning some heavy matter in our lives. You know, the kind of stuff that true fellowship is made up of.

Sometimes an older person and a younger person are engaged. Often married people and singles mix, people of different social or economic classes find no barrier to being together—in this environment it simply just doesn’t matter when it comes to fellowship. Jeans, t-shirts, ties, slacks, dresses, you name it. Kids play “kill the man with the ball” in the gym while younger children get scooped up to safety by concerned parents. Laughing, crying, deep discussions, chit-chat—you name it.

These are the kind of things Jesus had in mind when he spoke of the church being a family, all are accepted and each building up the other. When so many struggle with dysfunctional or broken families, the church is a family that provides a wonderful respite from the cares of the world. It may not seem like much to outsiders (like a small seed) and we may blue jays seem to argue at times, but we birds of a feather like to flock together in the tree of God’s kingdom, and we stick up for each other.

For some people this replaces their dysfunctional family of birth and provides an example of what a real family should be like like. More than just providing an example, though, the local church is a real family, a functional one. Praise God for the church!