And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 1 John 2:28 (NIV)
Within Us All – Abide Series – Part 1
The apostle John called those he wrote to, “dear children.”
If someone called me (a grown woman with children of my own) a “dear child,” I’d almost be offended – it sounds condescending. But in Greek, dear children translates into “my born ones.” For John, it was a way of describing being “born again.” It's what Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about in John 3.
Rebirth.
Nicodemus asked, “How can anyone be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’ talk?”
“You’re not listening,” Jesus said. “Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation — the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.”
We’ve all been born. We all have a mother who cried and cringed and wrestled us out of her body. And we continue to be re-born all throughout our lives.
Tragedy often births something within us. Success can birth something within us. An experience, traveling, love, hopes, opportunities… all these things can birth something new in our hearts and lives. Ideas and visions sprout up and have a life span within us. And then, some of these things die, giving way for new life to grow. Or perhaps for the some of our buried hopes and dreams to find their legs and wings again.
I was born at Gosford Hospital on the Central Coast of NSW. My family has both Scottish and English heritage (I like to imagine Celtic origins for myself… who wouldn’t?!). Jesse (husband) was born at Melbourne hospital and has Italian and English heritage. His Dad was born in Venice and came to Australia when he was eight years old. We have a physical point of origin that influences who we are and how we live our lives. It informs a lot of our stories.
But spiritually, my essence began in the Divine. He is my country, my past, and future, on a deep and unseen level. Before I had any physical form, I existed with him – somehow, someway. The essence of who I would become was birthed deep in His imagination and became manifest the day I was conceived. This physical world and all that pertains to it sometimes causes us to forget where we really came from. This creates a dissonant tension within us all; a homesickness for a land we’ve never seen, causing us to question if we truly belong.
CS Lewis said it best when he wrote,
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.” (Mere Christianity)
We live out our days looking for meaning, searching for truth, but never really finding it until we become aware of who we really are. Our true origin. And at that moment, a rebirth takes place, and we allow our heart and spirit to come alive to faith. Awake, aware, new; Rebuilding the rest of our lives from this point of renewed (remembered) heritage.
We become the “the little children” John was talking about…
The born ones.
Over to you. Leave us your comments below.
Go to Part 2 – Our Home »
Written by Lizzy Milani
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