Is This Actually Your Daughter?

"Is this actually your daughter?"

That is what the orthodontist asked me the other day as he was looking at several of my children's teeth.

 I mean, just half an hour before asking me this, he had met and greeted me and noted that Carrie's jaw structure matched mine more closely than the other children's did. 

Now, as he notes that the other three children's jaw structures were similar, he turns and asks,
"Is this actually your daughter?"
 Gracious woman that I am, rather than punch him in the nose, I smiled and assured him that yes, Carrie was indeed my daughter.

I figured what he was thinking.
He was thinking about all the blended families, and how if you had seven children,
perhaps three were yours and four were your husband's.
Things are just that way nowadays.
But yes, this was my daughter, even if her jaw was different than the other three.

Just because three watermelon cutouts were dragonflies and the others are a butterfly and heart shape
doesn't mean they didn't come from the same watermelon.
(My children had a ball making watermelon cutouts last week for home school meeting snack time.)

 God has a lot of children, and I know some of them. 

And not one of them is alike.

And not one of them agrees with me on every little thing.

Just because someone else doesn't think exactly the way you do,

or interpret the meaning of every Scripture just the way you do

doesn't mean they aren't a Christian like you are.
Some noses naturally tilt up, and some mouths naturally turn down, and some imperfections exist in some of the most beautiful people around.
We all have holes in our hearts and end up a little too starry-eyed sometimes.

But I read in I John today in my Bible reading, "...Abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming."
We may not all be exactly alike, but in certain specific things, the children of God "are made manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother."

 "This is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?
Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous."

 When we look at our brother and see that his works are righteous, how do we respond?
Do we respect him for it? Do we appreciate his righteousness and accept any conviction that falls on our own hearts about how perhaps we can grow in grace and maturity and shore up in our own obedience and righteousness?

 Or do we quickly try to find fault with that person, like Cain did, and hate that person in our heart--
especially as we play the comparison game,
all because his works are righteous and ours, in some particulars, aren't quite so?

I love to meet and fellowship with people who are more righteous than I.
I love ones who are kinder, stronger, who have more tact, who have stronger ethics, who are unashamed and unafraid and honest and forthright and loving and humble and modest and cheerful and joyful and unassuming and gracious and simple.
I want to learn to be a better person.

 I love those parents whose relationships with their children are strong, loving, caring, generous, and self-disciplined.
I want to learn to be a better parent.

 I go to church and I love the people in our church.
Not one of them is perfect, but I love them anyway.
I try to greet the strangers as well as my closer friends. I try to meet and greet everyone at some time every once in a while. I choose to give hugs as well as hope to be hugged by others.
Loving isn't just responding when some other loving person reaches out to you.
It is choosing to reach out to the other person first--especially if you have had a bit of an issue with that person.

 "For if you love them which love you, what reward have you?" Jesus asked. "Do not even the publicans so?"
The depth of love comes out in the way we treat the person who has hurt us.
Are we willing to be first to greet them? To shake their hand? To offer a hug? To forgive and forget?
To make amends? To offer to find a way through or around the difficulty?
We may not always be able to have the closeness we desire, but are our hearts open to the healing that God gives to hearts that want to truly love?

"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?"

When we hear of the hurricane devastating the homes of fellow Christians on a mission in Dominica,
and the drought that is causing so much suffering in parts of Haiti,
and the refugee crisis in Syria and the Middle East,
do we just keep indulging our appetites and saying, "Well, our little bit can't help much"?
Or do we try to eat a little more from our garden...

 and a little less from the stores and restaurants?
Do we have a heart that is big enough to actually sacrifice, or are we determined to hang onto all the treats we want?

 Love isn't always comfortable.
Sometimes love is a mustard plaster on a congested chest.
"I used to use a mustard plaster," Jonathan's mom told me when I told her about Jonathan's congestion.
So I looked it up online, and Jonathan wanted me to try it, and it worked!

The heat from the mustard drew the blood up to where the congestion was, and relieved it almost instantly. He slept well and by morning it was so much better.
We did have to keep using a fresh plaster a few more times as the congestion kept trying to come back.
But love isn't just doing what is comfortable for you or the other person.
It includes humility and hard work and making healthy choices.
It includes cooperating and exercising ourselves unto godliness--
and cooperating with others and playing hard, too, like two hours of Phys Ed on a Friday afternoon with another home school family!

And cleaning up the mess afterward.

 Are we actually children of the heavenly Father?

Do we have the same heart?

We aren't all alike, but we can be His children.

And we can allow that person who isn't quite like us to also be His child.