There is no shortage of DNA tests on the market that promise to tell us about our family history and genetic makeup. They reinforce a universal truth: like it or not, all our physical traits come to us from our parents. And, the older we get, the more we realize that many of our personality traits come from them, too.

Maybe you love this. Maybe it annoys you a little. Maybe it absolutely devastates you. Maybe the last thing you want is your family of origin’s blood coursing through your veins.

Scripture speaks to our family trees in a powerfully hopeful way. It promises us a better family tree – an eternal family tree. John 1:12 tells us that Jesus gives the right to become children of God to those who believe in His Name. He offers us a new family tree, and the opportunity to be born of God, alive with new spiritual DNA. How did he accomplish this task? By another tree—the cross. 

Jesus came to die, sacrificially. He traded places with us. The sinless Son of God bore our sin and died our death so that we could become sons and daughters of the Most High. The perfect Son of God was abandoned and rejected, so that you and I would never have to be. We will never be forsaken, because Jesus was forsaken in our place.

By his death on a tree, Jesus grafted us into a new family – the family of God. By his resurrection, he robbed death of its power over those who belong to this family. In his family, we all live under the waterfall of our Father’s blessing. As His sons and daughters, we live in these realities!

• We’ll never outgrow God’s care. 

• We’ll never exhaust God’s love. 

• We’ll never outrun God’s reach. 

• We’ll never slip through God’s fingers. 

• Every day we’ll wake up to God’s new mercies. 

• God will meet all our needs. 


In Christ, you are chosen, loved, prized, wanted, and believed in by God – your Perfect Father.