Belong...

This past week I was going to make a quick call to our son Nicolas and without too much thought I dialed his cell number.  I greeted him, but noticed right away that he seemed hesitant to talk.  I felt bad because I realized that I was calling during his work hours and quickly asked, "Calling at a bad time?"
"No, it's fine." he paused for a second and then said, "Who is this?"
Thinking that he was joking around I said, "It's mom!"
"Oh, OK" again, that strange pause, "what do you want?"

Now, I'm realizing that perhaps I dialed the wrong number, so I ask, "Did I dial the wrong number?"
Finally a quiet laugh, "Yeah, I think you did!"
Oh boy, how embarrassing, but seriously his voice sounded just like our son. I quickly apologized.
He said, "Not a problem."
For some reason I apologized again instead of hanging up like most normal people do and that was when he made the following statement.
"I knew it was a wrong number because, well, first of all my mom and I aren't talking any more and there's no way she would EVER call me!'
I said, "I'm so sorry!" And it was not an apology for my miss dial, but for the broken relationship with his mom.
He grew serious, "It's OK, really" said goodbye and hung up.
My heart broke for this young man, whoever he was.  I prayed for him and his mom.
I can't stop thinking about him.
But this little episode got me to thinking about this Sunday coming up.  Pastor Phillip is speaking on membership in the church.  Membership...belonging.  This young man did not have a mom who said, "You belong to me!" How sad.
Sometimes we look at going to church from the perspective of 'fitting in', but it's more than that, isn't it?  It's 'belonging'
Recently in my devotions I was reading Mark 3 and I read some verses that have often made me uneasy.  It's when Jesus mother Mary and his brothers come to see him.  The verses read...

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.  A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

    “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

After my talk with this young man I went back and reread those verses understanding them a lot better than I had days before.  Flesh and blood does not guarantee that you belong to anyone, this young man's mother proved that, however, when we have accepted Christ into our hearts we become a part of a much larger family.  And when we join the church that sense of belonging, that bond, grows deeper and stronger, there's spiritual growth, caring and accountability.  It would drive me crazy not communicating with our children.  Not in a controlling way, but because I care for and love them.  They are mine. 

Oh, being a part of the church doesn't come without it's struggles and growing pains, but I can tell you from our experience 3 1/2 years ago when our world came crashing down, it wasn't just our flesh and blood family that stood by us, but our church family was also our rock and support that carried us through and continues to do so even now.

Church membership is not about rights and privileges, but about love, support, caring and belonging.