I do belong somewhere

This post was on my cousin's status message on our social network. Her mindset was back in our family reunion, where as usual, we all had a blast.

However, her simple statement of thanks sparked another thought within. We do belong somewhere, and more importantly to someone, namely Jesus Christ. Just like my cousin experienced a room full of love within our extended family, we who are in Christ, can also experience that love, and know that we actually do belong somewhere.
A brother asked this morning during Sunday School, if we really understand the impact of what "being saved" meant. We had all heard the phrase in some form or fashion. "I was saved when I was a youngster at my mother's knee", or "I got saved at Bible camp". "God saved me from myself when I was stone cold drunk in the bar..." many testimonies all relate the same message: I was saved.
What does that mean?  As a child, that phrase merely meant I was saved from hell. No longer going there, I was now on the road to heaven. That was all it meant. I was grateful and relieved that no eternal damnation was in my future.

However, in the past few years, the Holy Spirit has seemingly been awakening my spirit to the greater portrait that salvation paints. To begin with, we belong somewhere. We who have put our trust in God, are sons (and daughters) of God. "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" Galatians 3:25-27; because we're His sons (and daughters), He treats us and disciplines us as such. "Endure hardships as discipline; God is treating you like sons, for what father does not discipline his sons?" Hebrews 12:7

There is so much more to 'being saved' than simply a fire insurance policy.  To be in Christ now means that we have everything we need for life and godliness; we have a God that will never leave us nor forsake us; and we know that He is looking out for us. This is being saved NOW not just when we die and go to heaven.

God, being the loving father He is, saw fit to teach me who I was in Him on this side of the grave. Not content to leave me in my ignorance, He took the trials of my life, and wove around me, a life of love in the Beloved. Definitely a Divine Romance, wouldn't you say?