Your Unique Tribe

Each of our families is distinct. Each has its own personality: its own history, nationalities, traditions, hurts, struggles, and victories.

All of these things – and more – make each of our families unique. And that uniqueness, when God shines His light on it, becomes a blessing to the world around us.

When Israel’s tribes first crossed into the promised land they lived as families in bedouin tents. It likely looked like a tent city strewn across the hill country: nomadic families living together, on the way to their permanent homes in the land He promised them.

As they continued their journey families and tribes from other nations joined the ranks because Israel’s God had a good reputation.

I have a similar picture of you – the Tribal Family: families of God’s People – each of your family tents housing an expression of God that no other family can.

You are each a unique mix: a wild and exotic fruit He is cultivating for the others to enjoy and experience.

As the Bible’s story unfolds we see God’s plan to bring in more nations, more tribes, languages and people groups. This trend of gathering distinct peoples continues even to the very end:

Then I saw another angel […] having the eternal gospel to announce to the inhabitants of the earth – to every nation, tribe, language, and people.
– Revelation 14:6

Elsewhere we read how gathering a diverse people is a goal of Christ’s eternal work:

You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests to our God… 
– Revelation 5:9b-10a

God glories in the variety of His creation – in the different creative expressions of Himself.

God loves that your family and our family play in different corners of His Kingdom. He delights in each individual and each family having a call to worship Him and image Him in ways unique to them.

We honor Christ when we celebrate and embody the variety of His expression.

Now we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
– Romans 12:4&5

In the Trinity, differences provide for the Godhead to elevate and glorify one another. And it is through this dynamic that the world gains a proper understanding of what real love is.

I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by Your name, the name You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are one.
– John 17:11