When two colleagues at Manchester Airport discovered they were actually brother and sister, it made headlines around the world. For writer Jenny Sanders, their remarkable reunion is a beautiful reminder that, through Christ, God invites us into a family that extends far beyond blood ties.
There are acquaintances, there are friends and then there’s family. Andrea Urmston made a platonic friend while working at Manchester Airport. She serviced the vending machines, while Dave Green managed the bus station. More than just co-workers, they joked, texted and phoned each other outside work. By the time they were finishing each other’s sentences, their bond had grown unusually strong.
Then, sounding increasingly like a Hollywood storyline, Dave told Andrea that he had been adopted at birth as Stuart Proudlove. Proudlove was Andrea’s maiden name. When he shared his birth date, Andrea felt a seismic shift in her world. You can probably guess where this is going.
Andrea had always known about an older brother who had been adopted by a childless woman. As incredible as it sounds, despite the astronomical odds of such a coincidence, the friends turned out to be brother and sister.
READ MORE: TV show ‘Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace’ on God rescuing an abandoned baby
Not only did they find each other, but Dave was also reunited with his birth mother after her decades-long search through the Salvation Army’s family tracing service. For more than 40 years, they had lived just a few streets apart.
Perhaps it’s hard to imagine such a scenario playing out in your own life, but for the people of God, something remarkably similar happens more often than we realise.
The more I’ve travelled, the more I’ve met people who share Jesus as the foundation of their values, priorities and way of life.
The more I’ve travelled, the more I’ve met people who share Jesus as the foundation of their values, priorities and way of life. That common faith binds us together from the outset. We truly find ourselves sharing life with brothers and sisters in Christ, not as a cheesy cliché, but as a lived reality. I don’t call my biological siblings “brother” and “sister” in conversation, that would be strange, and I rarely use those titles in church either. Yet the relationship is no less real.
One of the reasons I have such a close bond with my cousins is because we share our faith in Jesus. We’re fortunate to have grandparents who prayed for each of us by name every day, leaving us with a spiritual as well as relational legacy. Our WhatsApp group is full of banter, jokes and prayer requests.
READ MORE: Life Lessons: She lost her childhood caring for her mum – then God wrote a different story
People who’ve worked alongside us for 20 or 30 years now feel more like siblings than colleagues. If they call, we’ll go. If we call, we know they’ll be with us in a heartbeat.
Jessica and Anni have become much more than friends through years of shared history, despite living many miles apart in Luton and Zurich. James and Julie served on our leadership team in Hampshire for 18 years before moving into mission work in the French Alps. We couldn’t ask for more loyal friends; they truly are family to us.
Thirty-five years ago, we led Charlotte and her husband through their marriage preparation. Today, Charlotte and I lead a women’s ministry called Steadfast together, and we’re in touch several times a week.
READ MORE: Adoption gives us the deeper meaning of family and faith
We were introduced to Peter in Singapore by Ed from the United States, whom my husband had first met in Argentina. (Family networks in mission can become wonderfully complicated!) Peter greets us like long-lost relatives. His kindness and generosity go far beyond ordinary hospitality. Whenever we’re together, we laugh, reminisce and tell stories of God’s faithfulness and provision. We first met our friends from Japan in Singapore and have since shared time together in the UK, South Africa and Tokyo. Ours is far more than a holiday friendship. We have a deep bond because we belong to God’s family. Despite language barriers, we’ve enjoyed exploring together what it means to live out New Testament principles in very different cultures.
Years of shared life have transformed our friendship into something that feels much more like siblinghood.
One of our dearest friends in Zimbabwe was introduced to us by another missionary. Years of shared life have transformed our friendship into something that feels much more like siblinghood. Skin colour is no barrier to family, and although distance presents challenges, it cannot erase the ties that have been formed in Christ. I’d love to tell you about Pat, Hilary, Jane, Leslie, Louise, Caroline, Carrie, Jeanne and Jo, so many women who have shaped me on my journey with Jesus. We don’t agree about everything, just like any family, but our shared faith enables us to navigate differences with the grace that Christ offers.
A saying often attributed to W.B. Yeats reads, “There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet.” Nowhere is that truer than in the Kingdom of God, where friends can truly become family.
It’s estimated that around a quarter of the world’s population identifies as Christian. While that encompasses people from many traditions, denominations and levels of faith commitment, it also means there are millions of brothers and sisters in Christ whom we have yet to meet. Keep looking out for them. You may discover that one of God’s greatest gifts is a friendship that becomes family.
No comments yet