The House That God Built

When we feel like our families of upbringing disqualify us from God’s love … Kay Fuller shows us how to translate that message into God’s truth.

Elisa

The House That God Built: No Matter What Love

By Kay Fuller

One of our grandsons recently interviewed his papa and me for a family history project. As we all scooted into the table and perused the homework, memories re-surfaced—some quickly retrieved from personal experience, while many others gradually emerged based on stories passed-down through preceding generations.

Like most families, there were definite highs—most notably, a succession of folks who kept pursuing Jesus, mis-steps and all. But the lows were also undeniable as we recalled trials that weaved through our lineage: cancer, strokes, lives cut too short, still-born births, addiction, blindness (physical and spiritual), and strained familial relationships.

After we declared the assignment completed and went for ice cream, God’s ever-present faithfulness highlighted our conversation. Even in our ancestor’s “stuff,” God kept working, faith grew, and salvation came to multiple generations solely because of a God who loved—and loves. This idea is reflected in the motto of our local church: No Matter Who We Are, Where We’ve Been, What We’ve Done, or What’s Been Done to Us.

When we think our family is beyond repair for future generations, we can find hope in God’s Word through the story of Jacob (also named Israel) and the family and nation whom God chose and built. In the drama-filled account of the establishment of Jacob’s family, God’s “no matter what” love infiltrates.

Though our circumstances and God’s answers may vary from the broad sweep of the story of Jacob’s family in Genesis 25-50, we can trust that God’s love for us will remain steadfast as it did for them. . .

No Matter. . .

Who You Are: Jacob’s house was full of cheaters and deceivers. Deception begets deception, and it followed Jacob from his father’s bedside, to working overtime for love, to his sons concealing their brother’s whereabouts. Yet, God was not deterred; he continued to carry out his earlier promises to both Abraham and his grandson, Jacob.

When sinful, ancestral tendencies double-down and threaten to stamp us with their permanent identity, we can remember God’s redeeming “no matter what” love for his foundational family.

Where You’ve Been: The growing family of Israel had been all over the place—a bunch of “had-beens.” Jacob had been a stealer on the run, Laban had been a schemer, Leah had been unloved, Rachael had been barren, and practically the whole lot of them had been in the waiting room.

Whether our own story is eerily similar or vastly different, we can almost taste the inescapable comparisons and constant barrage of tension-filled life in Jacob’s growing household. God remained fully attuned to his promises and to his no matter what love—regardless of where his people had been.

What You’ve Done: Jacob’s family had a knack for turning to other measures and looking for help in all the wrong places (sounds very present-day familiar). Laban admitted to seeking outside sources through “divination.” Rachel, not dissimilar to her grandmother-in-law, Sarai, took matters into her own hands via Bilhah.

In all they’d done to implore their own strategies in backfiring efforts, God was still faithful to his no matter what, love-infused, perfect timing.

What’s Been Done to You:  In this distress-filled family, we learn more about God’s lovingkindness. Jacob was robbed of years and love by his Uncle Laban, yet God built the entire nation of Israel through him.  Though Leah was hated, God heard her. Similarly, although Rachel agonized in barrenness, God remembered her.  God was with them presently and futuristically, building a lineage through which the Messiah would come.

When our own shame becomes our focus, we can know that God’s no matter what love is not thwarted by our tragedy-laden family trees. In spite of our colorful past or present, familial hope is not lost when our hope is in “‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’” (Matthew 22:32).

That’s the story our grandchildren can one day tell their great-grandchildren—about the house that God built.

Kay Fuller is a pastor’s wife, mom to three kids, and grandmother to eleven grandchildren. As an elementary education major and a seminary graduate, she enjoys combining her love for families, children, and Scripture. She loves her grandkids (and the rest of her family too), her corn-field state of Iowa, “Up North” lake-life, juggling her coffee thermos and hydration bottles, eating way too much popcorn, and wait—did we mention the grandkids?

Her new children’s picture book is based off her church’s motto—“No Matter What, God Loves You! No Matter Who You Are, Where You’ve Been, or What You’ve Done.” Follow Kay on Instagram @thisgrandparentlife.