Last year my son, Christian, and I drove deep into the heart of Texas to buy a Yorkshire terrier puppy. We’d checked out the breeder’s website, and the puppies and parents were adorable black-and-tan balls of energy. As we pulled into the long gravel driveway, dogs of every breed, size, and shape—plus two peacocks, five goats, and a rooster—ran out to greet us.
We knocked on the front door and Wanda the breeder escorted us into a small room off the kitchen. “Wait here,” she said, “and I’ll bring the puppies out.” Soon Christian and I were on the floor laughing as seven tiny, barking bundles of joy crawled all over us. After Christian chose the one he wanted, we headed home to Dallas with four-pound, twelve-week-old Maggie in her crate.
Well, she grew and grew—and even today she still appears committed to growing. I asked our vet what she thought about the lineage of our rapidly expanding Yorkie, and she said, “Her mom may have been a Yorkie but something else got in there!” Whatever breed she is, Maggie is part of our family and she is loved.
It’s my fervent prayer that we as the church would be able to say the same thing about everyone in the family of God. I believe that we are on the brink of a true revival, and some of the people who will come pouring through our doors will not look like the perfectly turned-out Sunday school crowd. When Paul wrote to the church in Rome, he addressed the religious and social stereotypes of his day directly. Some of the wealthiest people of the day had come to Christ—and so had their servants. Many Jews had found their faith completed in Christ but struggled with non-Jews being accepted into the very same spiritual family. Paul’s passionate plea to Christians was that they learn that in Christ we are one family.
I believe that for too long we have found comfort and safety in being around those who look like they share a spiritual mother with us, when the reality is, the ground at the foot of the cross is even. Everyone you will meet today has two things in common with you: they have been made in the image of God, and they need Jesus.
Will you join me in praying that we will see others through the eyes of Christ with love and acceptance, just as He has received each one of us?
Five Minutes in the Word 
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:12–13
If we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7
Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.
Galatians 6:10
So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Romans 12:5 ESV