Family Portrait

Bible Reading: Romans 8:14-17; 1 John 3:1-2

“Today,” said Miss Hamilton as she passed out paper in art class, “you are going to use chalk to draw a picture of your family.”

Some of the kids groaned, but Melia smiled. She knew just what to draw. She started sketching, and soon her paper was nearly filled with faces of girls, boys, men, and women. She used every color of chalk as she drew blondes, brunettes, redheads, and bald heads. She used peach, tan, brown, black, and beige on the faces. She was putting glasses on some of them when Miss Hamilton said it was time to stop.

“Who would like to share your picture with us?” Miss Hamilton asked.

Violet raised her hand. “This is me, my parents and brother, and all my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins,” she said as she held up her paper.

“Aunts and uncles and cousins?” asked Ian. “Were we supposed to draw them too? I thought we just had to draw our parents and brothers and sisters.”

“I said family, so that can be whoever you want to include,” said Miss Hamilton. She stopped at Melia’s chair. “Melia, would you like to tell us who all is in your picture?”

Melia held up her picture. “I don’t know much about my real family,” she said hesitantly, “but here’s my foster family. And this lady is my caseworker. This is a picture of the man who teaches my class at church. These are some kids in Honduras that our class collected money for. This one’s my pastor. This is a missionary family in Africa, and here are some people who go to their clinic. These are—”

“Wait,” said Ian. “Those people aren’t your family.”

“Oh yes, they are!” Melia stated firmly. “The Bible says everyone who’s a Christian is part of God’s family. I’m a Christian, and these people are too, so they’re all my family.” She stopped, unsure of what her classmates, and especially her teacher, would think of that.

“I like it,” Violet said as she started sketching a few more figures in her picture.

Miss Hamilton smiled. “I do too. I think it’s a wonderful thing to have such a large family.”

-Sharyl Noelle

How About You?

Do you think of other Christians as family? If you’re a child of God, all those who trust in Jesus are part of your family. This includes people you don’t know from countries all over the world. It includes people who are well-known who you wish you could meet. It includes everyone who knows Jesus as their Savior. Because of Him, we all belong to God and are part of His family.

Today’s Key Verse:
Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (NKJV)

Today’s Key Thought:

All Christians belong to God’s family