GOD’S GLORIOUS DREAM

“God puts the lonely in families.” - Psalm 68:6

God puts the lonely in families. Scripture says that, and my friend Benson can also tell you this is true.

“It makes me emotional,” said Benson. “This young boy, who was very small in size, was standing with other boys at the door of a classroom. He was behind the other boys because they were a bit taller, and when he saw me, you know what he did? He said, ‘There, my father is coming! My dad is coming!’ I shed tears because I realized that this boy, who never had a family, the boy who never had someone to call dad, was here full of energy, full of courage, pushing aside the other boys and telling them, “‘Move, my dad is coming!’”

Benson and Eunice haven’t just cultivated a farm in the arid Rift Valley; they’ve built a family. They prophetically named the ministry that encompasses a farm, school and children’s home: “Give Me Hope” or “Nipe Tumaini” in Swahili. Where once there was desert, a flourishing garden grows, and children can be heard laughing and playing. This place is a safe harbor for abandoned and abused children, a place to find hope and family.

God puts the lonely in families. The ministry at Nipe Tumaini is a microcosm of a grand cosmic truth – the truth that God is weaving us together into one big family, and He is a loving father, always coming towards us.

A thread that’s been on my mind lately is the theme of a global family. Family isn’t just the people you share DNA with; it’s every child of God, loved and brought into a new and truer reality because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

“All are welcome here; it’s a big, boisterous, loud, and quirky family...we are a patchwork quilt of stories and cultures, skin colors, and giftings, and we are God’s glorious dream.”

All are welcome here; it’s a big, boisterous, loud and quirky family, and we each belong to one another, and we must work together to flourish as a family. We are a patchwork quilt of stories and cultures, skin colors and giftings – God’s glorious dream.

The theme of God’s global family is woven throughout Scripture, and when we miss it or resist it, it’s time to repent and gently reorient our hearts toward the world outside our door and the people God has given us to love as family.

This love is for all peoples in all places and at all times. I need my brothers and sisters to show me the way, teach me and be patient with me. I need my brothers and sisters in East Africa. I need their wisdom, their example, their stories, their exhortation. I need them, and so do you.

I had the honor of spending time with our ministry partners at the God’s Global Family conference this summer. My biological father, or “baba” in Swahili, went with me! When I was visiting Benson’s ministry at the farm, he came to me and said, looking at my dad, “He is also my baba,” then escorted my dad to a place of honor.

That moment was so tender to witness. We belong to one another, and my father isn’t just mine; he’s worth sharing, just as Benson is a father to many children, just as our Baba God gathers our lonely hearts into his arms, into one beautiful global family. Let’s run towards him, together!