To belong is a desire we all have. Physically, emotionally and spiritually we all seek to belong. We have always been in this state, even before we knew anything about ourselves. We were chosen, called, dreamt about or thought of and sometimes planned by our parents before we were conceived in our mother’s wombs.  But most importantly, God had the original thought.

Ps 139:13, 15-16: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

The family is like a book,
The children are the leaves,
The parents are the covers
That protective beauty gives.
At first the pages of the book
Are blank and purely fair,
But time soon writes its memories
And paints its pictures there.
Love is the little golden clasp
That bindeth up the trust.
Oh, break it not, lest all the leaves
Shall scatter and be lost.
- Author unknown

Whether we were born as an individual, as a twin or as part of a multiple, we were all meant to BELONG. Psalm 68:6 says, “God sets the lonely in families.” Even if you were born into this world through an unplanned pregnancy, GOD, the creator of all things, saw you before you were formed and you became a part of God’s thoughts, vision and purpose in your generation and IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF HIS REALM.  In understanding that God places us in our family for a purpose, we can then determine who we need to be or should be as a family.

We don’t choose our family – Isaiah 8:18
Isaiah acknowledges that the children with him are from the Lord; it was not his choice but that of the Lord.  Imagine if everyone had the opportunity to choose their own family.  Where would you be today? I once thought to myself what will it be like to be a part of another family? I am glad I never tried to find the answer. I am so happy and thankful to God for the family he put me in because if it were not so, I would probably not be a disciple today. I praise God for putting me in the family that He saw fit for me to be a part of.

In Acts 17:26, Paul explains as he addresses the Areopagus that it is God who determines the place, time and boundaries of where everyone will live. We are not in the wrong family, era or place; we are exactly where God determined we should be when God knit us in our mother’s womb. 

When you and I fight against this, we are saying to God that we are not happy with His decision.  But since we cannot argue with God, we had better make the best out of our lives and be happy. Look at Esther (Esther 2:15-17) who lost her parents, yet in being adopted by her uncle Mordecai and having the right attitude, was blessed by God as she later became queen, the wife of King Xerxes. Imagine if she was bitter towards God for taking her parents from her. Would she have had the impact she had and become a saviour for the Jews? That was God’s plan - to save the Jews.  And it was fulfilled because Esther was appreciative and did not try to plan her life the way she wanted. God has put us in the families we are in so we can do great things for God.

Sometimes we can look back and do not understand WHY we were placed in the families we grew up in or lived in the areas where we stayed. But because we do not understand, does not mean God is wrong. We can choose to find out or as the bible teaches: “God did this so that men would SEEK HIM and perhaps REACH OUT TO HIM and FIND HIM, though He is not far from each of us” (Acts 17:27 – emphasis added). We are all perfectly placed in families that will somehow lead us to seek God and reach out to Him.  As the psalmist says, “…but those who SEEK THE LORD LACK NO GOOD THING” (Psalm 34:10b – emphasis added). Therefore Paul concludes; “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now HE COMMANDS ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE TO REPENT.”

Nomteto Ogundipe (Soweto)