There is a family photo on the wall above the fireplace in our house. All the smiling people in it are there because they were born in our family or they married into it.
In our today’s reading from Acts 2, we get another family picture. This is a new type of family, and it’s just coming to life. The people here are devoted to Jesus, as the apostles taught, and they are devoted to one another, forming the fellowship of Jesus’ followers. They are part of this new family, not because they were born or married into it, but because they have been reborn into Christ. They are born again, brought to faith in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit.
This is what Jesus was talking about when he spoke to Nicodemus (John 3). Jesus then said that a person must be born again, believing in the Lord through the Holy Spirit, to see the Kingdom of God. And here in the family picture in Act 2 we see an initial crowd of these born again people eating, sharing, and worshiping together.
Do you see yourself in that picture? Although you were not in Jerusalem at that time, if you believe in Jesus you are also part of that family. As a believer, you have been born again by the Holy Spirit, and this family is your family. Like those believers, you are a new creation and a sign of God’s continuing work to restore His perfect creation!
