{"id":285,"date":"2009-12-18T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/12\/advent-prayer-day-20-jesus-is-family.html"},"modified":"2009-12-18T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-18T06:00:00","slug":"advent-prayer-day-20-jesus-is-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/12\/advent-prayer-day-20-jesus-is-family.html","title":{"rendered":"Advent Prayer, Day 20: Jesus is Family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Claudia Mair Burney<\/p>\n<p><strong>Friday, the third week of Advent<\/strong><\/p>\n<div><em>&#8220;He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.&#8221; John 1:10-12 NRSV<\/em><\/div>\n<p><em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Recovery literature speaks of family dynamics, and the roles each member takes on. There is the clown, who takes the tension away by offering comic relief when times get tough, and there is the forgotten child who&#8217;s, well&#8230; forgotten. Imagine being the forgotten God, the awaited Messiah that only a few recognize? But we can rejoice, because not everyone missed this loving God, so humble that he left his glorious existence to hang out with us mortals. And not only did he grace us with his presence, he made us into his family, insuring that we&#8217;d not only be God&#8217;s people, but also his children.<\/p>\n<div><strong>Brother Jesus,<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><strong>It&#8217;s hard to believe that in you&#8217;re so humble that you don&#8217;t mind me saying you&#8217;re my brother. You have come, and rather than hiding your identity from me, you&#8217;ve enlightened me. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Come, Lord Jesus.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Claudia Mair Burney Friday, the third week of Advent &#8220;He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,46,14,25,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-advent-prayer","category-bible","category-jesus","category-prayer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Advent Prayer, Day 20: Jesus is Family<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/12\/advent-prayer-day-20-jesus-is-family.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent Prayer, Day 20: Jesus is Family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Claudia Mair Burney Friday, the third week of Advent &#8220;He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. 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A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. 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