Reflections on Being ‘Family’.
came to St. Oswald’s last year, having spent my life as a Christian in
mostly Evangelical churches. The ways of the Scottish Episcopalian
Church could not have been more opposite to what was familiar to me.
There at the front of church, was a woman and she was the Priest in charge!
…there was no loud worship band, no talking in tongues, no hands waving in
the air. This is not a criticism of Evangelical worship, just a simple
observation of the differences I encountered.
I
At first it was very strange, I was apprehensive in this strange new world. I
had so many questions. Would I encounter the Holy Spirit? Would I feel part
of a ‘family’? Would I feel at ‘home’? I knew I had to stay, but I didn’t know
why. There was no doubt, that events leading up to visiting St. Oswald’s for
the first time, were God inspired (a story for another time) and I clung onto
this as I waited to hear what God was saying.
Almost 6 months later, I can look back and reflect on what has been a
breathtaking journey. For the first time in over 20 years of knowing Christ I
met God as my Father...Abba father. I encountered Jesus, who is teaching
me daily to be a daughter of Christ. And the Holy Spirit? Well she has been
busy – very, very busy. I have rediscovered the power of prayer, in
everything. I have been on my knees and wept, I have felt a depth of Joy,
previously unknown to me, I am learning to relate, to know what it is to be a
member of a church family and to know who I am, to learn, perhaps for the
first time, my identity in Christ.
I have my own family, I am part of a household. I am married to Stuart and
have 2 children. I am blessed to still have both my parents, despite their
mature years. I know what it’s like to be a wife, a mother, a daughter, to work
hard and somehow manage a household and all that involves. Yet do I
really? It is so very easy to become who we are labeled on earth – our
professions, our jobs, our identity in our family and never really relate. Sure,
as a family, as a household we have good times, we have bad, we have
happy times and of course sad. We laugh, we cry, we fight, we get angry
with one another – that is life. Should it be different for my church family?
God is teaching me, through His Holy Spirit, that by growing in church family,
He can teach so much, bless so abundantly my earthly family, my
household. He wants me / us to have ‘the eyes to see’; ‘the ears to hear’, He
wants to ‘renew our minds’ – and that is quite frankly amazing.
When He does, when we allow Him to, then we truly understand ‘family’,
then we really learn what it truly means to ‘relate’.
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