“For I long to see you…”  (Romans 1)

 

I was blessed to spend time with family in Mississppi recently.  I took a twenty-one (21) hour train ride to see my family, “for I long[ed] to see [them].” We visited my Aunt, two (2) cousins, one (1) cousin-in-law, and Three (3) second (2nd) cousins, all bloodbought by the Lord Jesus.  It was a little taste of Heaven.

My Aunt was probably the very first person to really show me God. She drove a van for a church, where she attended for decades and decades and decades until they treated her like a dog.  [SideNote: I wrote about that two (2) years ago and I spared know one, especially the pastor that was so “growth” minded, he forgot about the faithful. He’s gone now as most of his type usually leave because the congregation “just isn’t serving enough.”  Whenever a preacher gets “counting” on the brain remind him of 1 Chronicles 21, where (s)atan caused David to number his people for war. Enough on bad preachers and worse pastors].

Back to my Aunt. She was, like I said, my first taste of God. She would drive the church van year after year and I would visit each and every summer from as early as I could remember well up to my late teens. In fact it was she that took me to the pastor’s pasonage when I was seventeen (17) when the Spirit was drawing me to Calvary.  (By the way, the pastor I just spoke of is not the bad pastor).  She sat with me as the pastor spoke to me about Christ.  Thank God for my Aunt of aunts…I will for all eternity be thankful to that dear, dear and much loved woman…humanly speaking, without her, I would be lost.

The rest of my family in Mississippi love the Lord, too. God is blessing my cousin-in-law with two (2) promotions within months of each other and his raise is GREAT.  His raise equals some persons annual income.  Reader, that is of God.  His wife, my cousin, and daughter to my Aunt, is just a few years younger that me and she home-schools her two (2) very adult like children. Her son is like Dexter, the child Genius. and her daughter is excels all the young girls around her. My other cousin, is a few years older than me, she and I are very similar in many ways. I also saw another second (2nd0 cousin, mentioned above.  I see her turning into such an accomplished and very smart young woman. If anyone ever targets her for anything ill-intended, they have chosen the wrong person.

This family of mine, who are so like-minded with me and me with them, are a joy to be around.  This family listens to Christ-ian music, wears Christ-ian t-shirts, attend a good church, and the Lord Jesus is very Present in their homes.  It has been said before, the persons you love the most are always the farthest away.  Most of my family are either in Mississippi, Iowa, or Tennessee, or Indiana.

My Miss. family live on a road in a very rural part of town.  A cross the road from them, they have pet cows and pet Donkeys. To northerners or elitist types that may sound “hill-billy.”  This family is a classy, composed, and Christ honouring family you would be blessed to even know. Oh, and by the way, there’s nothing wrong with hill-billies.  There is plenty wrong with elitist and judgmental thinking, though.

My Aunt is a do-er, if ever there was a do-er.  She cannot do enough for you.  She has not been well lately, and I thought this the opportune time to visit and help take care of her.  It was my joy to do things for her, but like Peter’s wife’s mother, as soon as she was feeling a bit stronger, she’s ministering. She is a good balance between Mary and “Martha, Martha,” and that is not easy to do, but she pulls it off nicely, and makes it look easy.

I have been blest with good aunts and uncles and cousins. One of my favorite aunts on my Mom’s side (my Mississippi family is on my Dad’s side.) went to be with the Lord a number of years ago and she left a void as all loved ones do. We have a picture of her and it just doesn’t seem possible that she is with Him and not here now. My Uncle Jerry was a bif influence on me in my younger years, when it is important. To name all of my family would not fit the scope of this article, you know who you are and you know you are loved by this writer.

For those of you, that hold to a more “Calvinistic” or correct view of things, think about this….If God knew/loved us before the foundations of the world, in Eternity past, we who are saved, must be…must be…must be, who we are.  If Christ died for our sins, those sins are particular to you and me, right?  Well, then let us think backwards.  For you to be chosen by God and for Christ to live, die, and live again, specifically for you, you had to be exactly who you are. Which means your parents had to be exactly who they are for you to be who you are. Now continue backwards. For your paraents to be who they are their parents had to be who they were and …………. Are you getting the point?  Our family was as preordained as was your salvation…….MIND BLOWN…..POW.

Godspeed.