Daily Word of Grace # 79 (July 3, 2020)

One of the deepest needs we have is the need to belong.  Our entire lives we need to know we belong—not only where we belong and also more importantly, to whom we belong.  This goes from the infants’ need to belong to their parents, to a child’s need to belong to a group of friends, to a teenager’s need to belong to a team or group (even if that group consists of those who don’t think they belong to any group), to a college student’s need to belong (a need so strong they will subject themselves to insane hazing in order to “belong” to a sorority or fraternity), to an adults’ need to belong to the right significant other or in the right job, all the way to elderly people who still need to know where and to whom they belong.  In her hauntingly gorgeous 1988 song ”Fast Car”, from her self-titled debut album, Tracy Chapman put it this way, “I remember we were driving, driving in your car, the speed so fast I felt like I was drunk.  City lights lay out before us and your arm felt nice wrapped ‘round my shoulder, and I had a feeling that I belonged, I had a feeling I could be someone.”  Along these lines the Beatles’ ask in their gem “Eleanor Rigby” (from their 1966 masterpiece Revolver), “All the lonely people, where do they all belong?”  The good news of the gospel is that you belong to God, who bought you with the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross (1 Peter 1:18-19), and who beckons you to be part of God’s family, the church (1 Peter 1:9-10).  The gospel shows all of us, regardless of our stage in life, both where and to whom we belong…and that through the grace of God each of us is indeed someone.

Love and Prayers,

Dave