Grafted Into His Family Tree

By Danny Saavedra

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” – John 1:12 (NIV)

Irish novelist George Moore once wrote, “A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” There may not be a more apt way to describe our relationship with the Lord than this! We can travel the entire earth in search of purpose, significance, fulfillment, joy, peace, and belonging. We can experience all this world has to offer, and yet, we’ll never find what we’re looking for until we come home to Jesus. 

You see, Christmas is all about how Jesus, the Son of God, left His throne in heaven, humbled Himself, and became a servant, taking upon Himself the sins of the world and giving His life for us. It’s the greatest love story ever told: God loved us so much that He sent His Son to open the door for us to become part of His family. This beautiful story that began all the way back in the Garden with Adam—that God made known to Abraham with a promise, that He illustrated through Isaac, and reaffirmed to David—all led to the coming of the Savior. 

In John 15:5 (NLT), Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches . . .” The moment we receive Him and believe in His name, we are grafted into His family tree, which means we become fused, bonded to Him—the vine. We’ve been given the right to be called children of God. We’ve been given sonship and all the privileges that come with being an heir in God’s family. Not like one who is adopted into a family, but rather as one who is a natural born heir. When we receive Jesus, we die to our former life and are born again as children of God.

The Christmas story is the fulfillment of a beautiful promise God made; it’s the catalyst to His plan for reconciling us to Himself. It’s our history and our heritage, our past, the story of how we became sons and daughters of Almighty God. But it’s also our legacy and our future because we’re all part of the story! 

God is still writing His legacy of redemption every single day, bringing more and more people into His family through you, His children. In 2 Corinthians 5:17–20 (NIV), the apostle Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”

Family, we want to leave you with this encouragement as we prepare to celebrate Christmas tomorrow: The God who created everything loves you so much that He made a way for you to be a member of His amazing, unique, diverse, and perfectly imperfect family. 

Today, and every day, celebrate Jesus and give honor and praise to God the Father who sent Him! Trust in the Lord and open your heart and life to be used by Him to bring more people into His family every day. There is power in your family story because it carries with it an amazing legacy. The line of Christ is your family heritage, a part of your story, so tell it every chance you get!