Happy Birthday

Today is my little sister's birthday. She was born on Friday the thirteenth, and spent most of her life terrorizing her big sister just to prove it. anyone else have the type of little sister that had to do everything you did, go everywhere you went, etc, ? And the type of parents that would constantly remind you, "Well, she IS your only sister."
Most of my life I saw her as an annoyance at best, a brat most of the time, and spawn of Satan at worst. As we grew older, we went our separate ways. I was the professional woman, married with kids, juggling it all and busy all the time. She was a homemaker and unable to have children. We had so little in common. We drifted apart.
Then she got sick. Really sick. And I saw her so vulnerable lying there in the hospital, with her pastor praying over her as she went into surgery, and suddenly that obnoxious little brat became precious to me. Instead of focusing on all the bratty things she'd done all these years, I remembered all the things we'd been through together, and the good memories flooded over me.
Many church members do that to each other. They only see the bad things that have happened in each others' lives through the years. They hold grudges. And they grow apart in the body of Christ. They're great at coming together around a crisis, but otherwise they don't have time for each other. The people in Jesus' hometown of Nazareth wouldn't listen to him because they knew his parents and siblings (Mark 6:1-6.) They Threatened to throw him off a cliff rather than listen to what he had to say! Sometimes we ignore the treasures right before us!
Today, I thank God I'm celebrating my sister's 49th birthday! It's a miracle she's still with me. And I pray for many more years to get to know her better and love her more. I also pray for the Body of Christ to grow in its love for all its members that the love might overflow onto a hungry and hurting world.