"Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding."
John 2:2
Life is about relationships. God has given so much to us--dominion, power, intelligence, reasoning, and so much more. But the chief thing that He has given to us is the ability to have relationships. God created Adam and Eve and talked to them. He shared with them. In fact, they were so familiar with God at one point they "heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden" (Genesis 3:8) However, the relationship was broken. Separation occurred. It not only occurred between God and man, but also between each other. Strife, debate, contentions, hatred and murder have been recorded in the pages of our history.
God desires to be reunited with us. His desire is for us to have the proper relationship with Him and with others. This is evident even in the 10 Commandments. The first five deal with our relationship with God, and the next five deal with our relationship with others. Unless our relationship with God manifests in our relationship with others, our relationship with Him is useless. "Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." James 1:27 Jesus points this out in His prayer, "Forgive us as we forgive those who sin against us." (Matthew 6:12) and states "if you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you."
Jesus was always building relationships. It was the way of His ministry. Jesus was invited to a party--a wedding party. He wasn't too Holy to go. He wasn't too busy. He took the time to celebrate life. He was involved in the lives of those around Him. This is the same path that God has for us. He tells us that we are His workmanship prepared for good works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Part of those good works are going to be creating relationships and forming a community of love, joy and peace where we can be who He has created us to be and do what He has created us to do.
This doesn't mean that relationships are going to be easy or that we are not going to have some hard times with other. True community comes through conflict. We learn to love and forgive. We learn that relationships are worth the struggle. We learn to be like Him as we pursue a relationship with Him and others, and that is what He has called us to do.
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