God’s Gift of Relationship

17 CommentsThursday Thanks, , , ,

Why have I chosen to discuss God’s gift of relationship first? Why does it make me thankful?
Partly because in Genesis it’s one of the first insights God offers into who he is. In the persons of the Trinity, relationship, solid and creative, has existed since before time. As a concept, that’s fairly mind-blowing. The truth takes it a few exponents beyond that:

God is Intent on having Relationships with People

Need confirmation? God went looking for Adam way back when there was only one commandment to break: “Don’t Eat That.”
Instead of wiping his freshly created universe out on the spot, he had a plan and made a promise. If we look at Genesis 3, we’ll find God made his promise before he meted out the consequences for Adam and Eve’s disobedience. He offered hope, and the solution, before punishment.
Several of the good and perfect gifts from God are only fully available to people if a relationship with him in the person of his Son, Jesus, exists first. Salvation, Justification, Eternal Life, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Righteousness, Grace, and Victory are among them. Terrific reasons to thank him, right?

Does God’s Intention Affect Ordinary Life?

I believe it does. Here’s an example: After my father’s death, my brother and his family moved to California.
They love me, but the distance made their help unlikely when an extremely wet spring and early summer in 2008 made the roof of my manufactured home leak alarmingly.
I had no idea who to trust for repairs or assuming I found a contractor to replace my roof shingles, if I could afford to have the work done. The situation could have damaged my resolve to be thankful. But…
By God’s grace and provision I have a church family composed of many people who work in the building trades, and deacons and elders who believe it’s right for our congregation to do service projects.
A team of skilled men organized the purchase of shingles, and came on my birthday to strip the worn-out layers of roofing away, re-shingle the entire roof, and haul away the debris.
God's gift of relationship led to church members re-roofing my manufactured home.
Was I thankful for this gift of relationship? Absolutely.
Have there been opportunities within your relationships to supply great help? How were your efforts received? Leave me a comment if the recipients of your help don’t mind.

17 Comments

  2. Ruth DeMaat

    Reply

    Heidi, where would we be without our relatiionship with our God who loves us? All things are accomplished through Him and by Him, even the smallest details! He planned for your church relationship long before your roof leaked. He knew you would need other people besides your relatives to help you.
    I’m thankful that God cares for our every need. Even the smallest details of our everyday life. I pray that He will use me to fill the need of someone else. Thank you for the reminder today to look around me, to see what God wants me to do, and to give Him thanks for all He has done for me.

    • Heidi Kortman

      Reply

      Personally, I’d be feeling abandoned, and panicky. Thank the Lord neither of those things are true, because they certainly don’t honor Him.

  3. Krystine Kercher

    Reply

    Without the gift of relationship, I don’t think I could have gotten through so many situations in the last twenty years. Where do I even start to list them?
    But God’s gift of relationship is also so beautifully illustrated through missions: through the sending by churches and missions of Christians dedicated to building relationships and sharing the Good News of salvation with people in other countries around the world, and even here at home.
    Missionaries build bridges so lost people can be reconnected with God.

  5. Cynthia Cleaver

    Reply

    When my husband was in the hospital with emergency surgery, our church family set a schedule to make sure my daughter could finish her training at Peckham Industries for her current job in tier 1 tech support. That was a real sacrifice of their time and energy. She never missed a class in six weeks three times a week. This is what we sorely needed at that time. They did this so that I could spend time in the hospital with my husband and later take care of him at home.

  6. Maureen Geerlings

    Reply

    Thanks for sharing God’s provision for a roof for you. I’ve been reflecting on God’s many provisions for Mark & I in the last year, which was hard to see six months ago.

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