THE EYES HAVE IT

Our family is all mixed up. (In all sorts of ways. Like all families...)

I was born a Ritter. My Mom's maiden name was Owen, and her people were from the Vincennes area. My Dad, Max, was from the area around Anderson, Indiana. Max died in Africa as a young missionary, and my Mom remarried a wonderful young missionary doctor-to-be name Bob Fenstermacher. His people were from Upland by way of Cleveland, Ohio. Young Bob asked my Mom if he could adopt my brother, Eric, and me on the same night he proposed to her. So we're all mixed up. I wear the Fenstermacher name, but there is an Owen and a Ritter in there. Like I said, our family is all mixed up.

This past week Sharon and I have been in the beautiful, small town of Silverton, Oregon with a side of the Owen family to celebrate the long and good life of my Aunt Betty. The funeral took place, believe it or not, in a town called Mount Angel. The area, which looks much like the area outside Stuttgart, Germany, was settled by German settlers.

Someone turned to Sharon and asked, "Is your husband related to the Owen family?" Sharon simply said, as we gathered for the service, "Look at his eyes and then look at the eyes of Pat, Susan, Trevor, Dane and Vanessa." The person who had asked the question studied us and said, "Oh, my!"

The eyes have it. Our eyes give us away. The eyes indicate that there is a deep connection between us. We belong to one another.

What is it that gives us away as followers of Jesus? How will people see that we are connected...that we belong to one another?

Jesus gives us clues in John 16. Those who follow Jesus will keep his commandments, and they will do that because those commandments keep us in his love. Jesus said people will see his joy in us. The most distinctive trait, though, will be the way we love one another. "Love each other just as I have loved you," the Carpenter says in verse 12 (Common English Bible).

When someone asks if we are related, the Carpenter says, "Look at the way they love one another."

You can recognize the members of our branch of the Owen family by studying our eyes. Members of the Jesus fellowship give themselves away by the way they love one another.

The eyes have it!

   

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark Fenstermacher