My wife loves watching this TV show where people who were adopted are reunited with their biological families. I'm pretty sure that every episode, without fail, when siblings or parents finally meet face-to-face, she smiles and says, “Awww, they look like each other.”
And every time I tease her. “Why are you surprised? They’re related!”
After watching an entire episode, what she’s seeing isn’t just matching noses or familiar mannerisms. She sees their shared humanity, family story, and blood. A connection that, for most people, time and distance couldn’t erase.
Hebrews 2 tells us something just as beautiful about Jesus. “Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things.”
God did not redeem us from a distance. God put on skin. The Message Bible says that Jesus "became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood." He didn’t shout salvation from heaven. He walked it out on dusty roads. He felt hunger, grief, temptation, exhaustion, rejection, and even death itself. The Lord became like us in every way so that he could heal us from the inside out.

And if that wasn't enough, Hebrews 2:11 also says, “He is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” Jesus isn’t embarrassed by our brokenness and doesn't distance himself from our pain. He claims us as family.
Just as in those reunions when someone gets to say, “I’ve been looking for you my whole life,” the incarnation is God saying, “You belong to me.”
That is our family resemblance. Jesus shared our flesh and blood so fear could lose its power, death could lose its grip, and grace could have the final word.
Today, remember that you follow a Savior who understands your pain because he has lived it. Grace wears our face.
Stay blessed...john |
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