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Do you remember your first kiss, the first job you ever had or how about the first time you ever saw the ocean or the mountains?

As we go through life there are things that we remember and sometimes we take things for granted and miss out on those “firsts” because we do not pause to acknowledge them.

When I was a very young, I looked much like the Sunbeam Bread girl.  My hair was blonde and my eyes blue.  Mother being a professional stylist would take my curly locks and pin them up on my head.  Looking back, I favored that little girl.  It was my first remembrance of my mother doing my hair.   

This week as I studied the Word, a verse caught my attention.  The Word says, “Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’ “(John 20:17) 

This verse comes after Jesus has been crucified and laid in the tomb on Friday.  Mary Magdalene had come to the tomb early on Sunday to prepare Jesus’ body, but His dead body was not there.  He appeared to Mary in His transformed body. Now, that was definitely a first for Mary.

What struck me and I know I knew this, but had not put it together; of when it happened, until this verse.  All the times prior to this, the disciples were referred to as “slaves or friends.”  At this very juncture in time and Scripture, Jesus referred to them as brothers.  I was like “wow”, how did I not see what God was putting down. 

Fundamentally, I knew the debt Jesus paid on the cross for the sins of mankind, had given us access to God.  Immediately, we became family.  However, I had not realized the very moment Jesus referred to us as brothers/sisters.  He spoke those words out of His mouth and I was like, “wow!”   You could put a blinking light right there in your Bible, by that verse, and every time you opened it – you could remember.

Followers of Christ can be encouraged that Jesus made a way for His father to become our father and His God to become our God. Immediate access and the first time we were called brother/sister is when we accepted Jesus Christ as our all in all.  We can hold fast to the Word of God, it is truth.  May we always remember.

Yvette Perrin is a columnist for The Charlotte Gazette. She can be reached at theword2yvette@gmail.com.