This weekend, Janet and her two sisters met together to celebrate their relationship with one another. This usually happens several times a year and the autumn outing normally falls on the weekend that would have been their Mother’s birthday weekend. It has become a tradition and it is wonderful to see them get together and how tight they have always been (and still are) – loving each other well.
While this time their rendezvous happened at our home in Carmel – the Chicago suburbs and Williamsburg, VA have also been places they have met to enjoy each other’s company. Husbands really aren’t invited – we make ourselves scarce – but the sisters play it by ear and bond over their shared interests and love for one another.
It’s pretty much an unscripted weekend – it may include shopping, having coffee together at a local bookstore, seeing a movie or just about anything else they choose to do. And it’s wonderful to see how it all plays out…
I have known Janet and her sisters since I was a very young child. In fact, my brother, Ken, was born a month after Janet’s younger sister in the summer of 1960. I remember when she was born… And when Janet and I were dating, we used to sit for our oldest nephew right after his birth – he just turned 5o years old this year! There is comfort in having multiple family relationships that have existed for more than half a century.
My two brothers and I weren’t as close as Janet and her sisters are. I think it is fair to say that I was envious of the great relationship that Janet and her sisters had with their parents. It seems that in the early days, our family was not nearly as cohesive as Janet’s family. Throughout the years our family had its ups and downs and there were even times that we went through periods of finding it difficult to interact with one another.
That kind of polarity never happened in Janet’s family as long as I have known them – and that’s a long time! The older I get the more I admire the great parenting that my mother-in-law and father-in-law did with their three girls. And they were terrific in-laws that I was blessed to have in my own life for many years. In fact, I knew my father-in-law for more years than I knew my own father.
We are told in various places throughout the Scripture that not only will be with Christ in heaven, but that we will recognize and continue to have great relationships with those believers we have known on earth. In fact, these relationships will be even better! I can only hope that our relationships will be like the ones that Janet and her sisters have now. I have reason to believe they will be…
Our verse for tonight comes from the apostle John. He gives us the words of Jesus as He speaks with His Father in heaven about us. John recounts to us, in John 17:24-26, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
My encouragement this evening is that we will be with Christ and we will also spend eternity with those believers who we know and love. My prayer is that in the meantime our relationships here on earth, similar to Janet and her sisters, will be a preview of how we will all get along in heaven. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…