FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “Thirst Things First”

A new family must have moved into the house behind us over the winter.  We hadn’t known; there was no way we could have seen the For Sale sign or the moving vans from where we lived.  But suddenly, once the snow melted and the temperature warmed up, there were lots of boys running around our shared backyard.  Now, it turns out they didn’t all live in the house behind us.  A couple of them did, and the rest of the boys were their neighbors who came over to enjoy the expansive yard.  At first my kids were over the moon at the thought of new friends.  Finally, they had someone to play with besides each other.  And the boys ranged in ages, so both of my kids had someone their own age to talk to.  But after awhile, my daughter became less enthusiastic about playing with “the boys.”  When her dad and I asked what had changed, she stumbled around for an explanation.  “They’re loud.  And sometimes they’re mean.  And they’re just…different.”

I knew what she meant.  They were different—a lot different from her, in fact.  These boys liked loud, rowdy games, which meant they weren’t too interested in a game of make-believe with a wonderfully detailed and complex story line.  They didn’t want to take turns jumping in the trampoline.  They wanted to bounce together, colliding and trying to knock each other down.  They treated each other in ways that my children had learned were disrespectful.  Based on the short interactions we’d had with the parents, I guessed their home lives were different from my kids’, as well.  So I understood what she meant.  But did that mean my kids shouldn’t play with these other children?  

What do you think?  I’m sure you’ve known lots of people who were really different from you.  Maybe they came from a different country, spoke a different language, and ate really different foods.  Maybe their family treated each other differently than your family did.  Maybe they liked to do way different things, things that didn’t even sound fun to you.  Maybe they had different values, or even worshipped a different god.  What do you do when you’re around people who are so incredibly different?   Is being different a good enough reason to avoid someone or a group of someones?  

Take a minute and talk about that with your family.  What does everyone think?  When is “different” too different?

The Jews thought their “neighbors,” the Samaritans, were different.  Even though some of their ancestors had been Israelites, God’s chosen people, those ancestors had married people from other nations, nations that believed in many gods and not the one true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  That meant they were, well, different.  At the time Jesus and His disciples were teaching, most Jews wouldn’t even talk to someone from Samaria.   But Jesus decided to turn that practice on its ear.  Read what happened when Jesus traveled into Samaria, on purpose, in John 4:1-9.  

Jesus didn’t deny that the Samaritans were different.  He knew they had some views of God that were just plain off.  But maybe that’s what made it even more important to Him that He visit Samaria and share the real God of glory with them.  He knew that God wanted to be reconciled to ALL of his children, including the Samaritans.  And since they were so different, it would take a special connection, like Jesus talking with a woman at a well, for them to hear how much God loved them.  He could have avoided them.  After all, everyone else was!  But instead, He marched right into their downtown and told them about God.

Who are some of the “different” people in your life?  Have you been using that as a reason to avoid them?  What about Jesus?  What does He want for these different folks you know?

Talk together about ways you and your family can help people feel more welcome.  How can you share God’s love with even the most different kid at your school or in your neighborhood?  Pray together and ask God to help make you successful in reaching out to those who are different from you.