One Big Happy Family

Devotional -- One Big Happy Family

"For a long time, there was a story told about Jesus that never made any sense to me. It was the story of His mother and brothers coming to see Him while He was with His disciples. He acts as if He doesn't know who they are and doesn't go to see them. This story is found in three of the gospels, but I will take it from Matthew.

Matt. 12:46-50 "While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you." He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

I have read this many times and wondered why Jesus would do that to His family. More so I wondered, if He did to His own family, was He asking me to do it to mine too? Was He saying to leave my family? Was He saying to ignore them if they interrupt anything Godly? I never could figure out how I could apply it to my life or what it meant until the last day of our mission trip. On our last night of devotions, one of our team members, Rosie, asked the group if we wouldn't mind praying just one more time after we arrived in Dallas. She asked because she knew after the long 24-hour trip on three different planes, we would all be ready to leave and go home. Well, we all agreed to pray together and when we arrived in Dallas, we made the time to do it without any distraction. We weren't worried about grabbing our luggage, we weren't worried about how it looked to pray in the middle of a busy airport and we especially weren't worried about where our ride was at the time we prayed. For that brief moment in time, all that mattered was each member of our team and that they were blessed before we departed ways. That moment basically defined our entire mission trip, since it was very difficult to contact our family back home, all we had was each other. When we started our mission trip, our very first plane out of Dallas was delayed, which ended up causing us to be rushed at every other stop the entire time it took us to get to Busia. And even in Busia, we didn't have access to the internet, long distance and even Becca's Kenya phone wasn't getting reception. So for many days, we never had the opportunity to contact our family members except for a few text messages or a short call. We just relied on prayer and the fact that Buckner was sending them emails. And so, being in a foreign country without many of the normal everyday distractions we were use to, without any outside communication and being in a team atmosphere, we all became family members to each other. We prayed for each other, encouraged, served, looked after and cooperated more than a "mission team," we did it as a family. And so, on the surface, Rosie's request to forsake our actual family for just a few more moments after so many days of little to no correspondence with them seemed ridiculous, but because of how God divinely put us together, it was the perfect way to spend our last time together as a team. And even now, days after the mission trip, we still talk, we miss each other and we get excited about 'family reunions' to share pictures and eat.

Because of this experience, I now understand what Jesus meant in the story. He actually explained it when He said, "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." He wasn't forsaking His family as if He forgot who they were; He was just demonstrating that when you are doing the will of God, those who are with you are the most important people. When everyone is in one accord, in the will of God and holding the same purpose, God can make completely different people from different backgrounds, ages, places, genders and talents come together divinely to make more than just a group, but a family. Some of them are mothers, some are sisters and some are brothers. So now I see that as encouragement to any missionary group, church, community, fellowship or organization. Whenever you place God and His will as the focus, everything else will fall into place, and you might even get a chance to meet some of your 'long-lost' family members!

I thank God I got to be reunited with some of mine..."

Olumayowa A. Famakinwa


"The children of Busia and us taking a picture after they received all their school supplies and humanitarian aid"