18. ...he gave power to become children of God,

“To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,” says John. Children of God; that’s a powerful claim. And yet it is who we were always meant to be. Early in Luke’s Gospel, Luke traces the family tree of Jesus, back to the great king of Israel, King David, then through the patriarchs, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham, until he gets to the first generations of humankind, “…son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.” (Luke 3.23-38). The genealogies of the Bible can seem boring and irrelevant, but they are there for a reason, in this case to make the point that Jesus restores to humankind their true identity.  Adam and Eve were God’s creation, his children, but we have often forgotten this. Jesus calls us to  “abide in God” as John later puts it in chapter 15, enjoying the closeness for which we were created, rediscovering the family relationship God always meant us to have. In the book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, their first instinct is to hide from God, who comes looking for them “at the time of the evening breeze”. “Where are you?” calls God, plaintively. In the birth of Jesus, once again God comes looking for us. It is up to us whether we respond and let him draw us back into the relationship we were always meant to have with him.

REFLECTION POINTS
• Think about those who raised you and gave you life, your biological and/or adoptive or foster parents. What does it mean to you to think of yourself as their child? Are you glad to identify yourself as their son or daughter or not?
• How close do you feel to God right now?
• Imagine God asking you, “Where are you?” What would you answer?

ALL AGE IDEA
• Look at yourself in a mirror. What do you see?