Better Together

I grew up a middle child, the perfect spot to be, with two older brothers, a younger sister and baby brother.

There was always something happening and someone to do something with. I was richly blessed to grow up in a family that worked together, played together, and prayed together. We shared our skills, our efforts, even our resources. We were better together. Together we could accomplish anything!

Did you know that we are all middle children, born in the perfect spot, with older and younger brothers and sisters in Christ who have been generously endowed with incredible skills and talents who can teach us so much? We are blessed when we work together, play together and pray together. We each are a special, integral part of the family of God, and we are better together! When we share our skills, our efforts, and even our resources, we can accomplish anything!

We have the experience of the older brothers and sisters who have gone before us. . . Enoch, Jacob, Ruth, and Daniel, Timothy, Lydia, Paul, and so many more. . .accurately written down, and better than any ancestry records we can trace today. All 66 books of these records, God’s Holy Word, have been preserved by our Heavenly Father, meticulously copied and protected at the cost of our older sibling’s careers, educations, and even their lives.

We have younger siblings that fill our lives with joy and laughter, enthusiasm and a fresh perspective; purpose to stay true and leave a Godly legacy for their sakes. What a rich heritage is ours!

I’m so grateful to be part of this world-wide family, with brothers and sisters living in every corner of the globe—a family that is honest, hardworking, dedicated, faithful, loving, kind, compassionate, and, yes, even repentant, with siblings that have shown us how important it is to say I’m sorry and to forgive one another. We are not a perfect family; no, we have made our mistakes, but we have grown from them, learned from them and have turned from them. We are better together!

A Legacy of Zeal

Our older brother Paul reminds us in Hebrews 11 of the faith of our brothers and sisters that have gone before us and in the next chapter inspires us with these words, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,” (Heb. 12:1). We are part of a wonderful family, this family of God. We are better together, learning, sharing, growing. Yet as wonderful as this all is, it gets even better!

We have an older Brother who loves us so much that He has given everything to redeem us, to rescue us, to restore us! He is never critical or harsh, never discouraged with us. No, He sees in you and me all our potential, all we can be. “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,” (Heb. 2:11).

This Brother is God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, who came from heaven to show us how to live a life worth living, to shine the light on all the snares our enemy has laid for us, to die in our place, and has promised to forgive us and to cleanse us from all our sin. And that’s not all! He is preparing homes for us and has promised to come again soon, to raise to life all our family who have been separated from us by death and take us to heaven be with Him.

Our sister, Ellen White encourages us with this thought:

“They could speak the name of Jesus with assurance; for was He not their Friend and Elder Brother? Brought into close communion with Christ, they sat with Him in heavenly places. With what burning language they clothed their ideas as they bore witness for Him! Their hearts were surcharged with a benevolence so full, so deep, so far-reaching, that it impelled them to go to the ends of the earth, testifying to the power of Christ. They were filled with an intense longing to carry forward the work He had begun. They realized the greatness of their debt to heaven and the responsibility of their work. Strengthened by the endowment of the Holy Spirit, they went forth filled with zeal to extend the triumphs of the cross. The Spirit animated them and spoke through them. The peace of Christ shone from their faces. They had consecrated their lives to Him for service, and their very features bore evidence to the surrender they had made.”[1]

What Can We Do Together?

Brothers and Sisters, what can we accomplish together for our Elder Brother, with hearts surcharged with benevolence so full, so deep, so far-reaching, that it impels us to go to the ends of the earth, testifying together to the power of Christ? Don’t you want to be filled with an intense longing to carry forward the work He had begun? To realize the greatness of our debt to heaven and the responsibility of our work? Let’s pray. . .together. . .that we will be like our older brothers and sisters, strengthened by the endowment of the Holy Spirit, to go forth filled with zeal to extend the glorious triumphs of the cross, that the Spirit will animate us and speak through us, and that the peace of Christ shines from our faces. Let us consecrate our lives to Him for service, that our very features will bear evidence to the complete surrender we have made. What great things we can accomplish for the cause of Christ working together!