The people God sends to us

Someone once said to me, "Churches are like families - you can't choose the members of your family and you can't choose who goes to your church."

I'm embarrassed to admit there have been times when I've thought to myself, "So and so is such a problem person in our parish. Why can't she find another church?" And just then God has said to me, "I gave her to you to love, and why can't you love her?"

We don't get to choose the people who come to our church. Although we do get people who agree with us, people who are like us, people who affirm us and support us, we also get people who challenge us, who disagree with us, who annoy us and even hurt us. God sends all kinds of people to us, and we are to welcome them in and make them part of the family of God.

The people who come to our church are like seeds that God is sowing in us. Some people thrive in our parish; some people wither and fall away; some just get too busy to attend. But all of them are God's people, God's seeds. Our job is to receive them all and nurture them as best we can, so they might thrive and grow as children of God, and produce abundantly for the kingdom, some a hundred fold, some sixty, and some thirty.
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