My wife and I were asked to say a little something about how Christians can pray and get involved with the war in Ukraine. And before I do it, I would like to offer a quick word.
I heard it said that when you marry someone, you also marry their family. When I married Dasha, I didn’t only marry her family, I married her country. I am from Russia, and she is from Ukraine. You figure out the rest.
In Mark 10:9 Jesus says, “What God has joined together, let no one separate.” And serious joining and linking God performed indeed. My birth certificate shows the place of my birth—the Republic of Kazakhstan, my wife’s—USSR, our daughter’s—Homewood, Alabama. My passport shows the country of my citizenship—Russia, my wife’s—Ukraine, our daughter’s—the United States of America. God connects and unites us in mysterious ways.
I heard it also said that when you join the Church, you marry the whole family of God. Christians who didn’t know about each other’s existence are now connected with other believers by invisible faith in the living God. Christians on this continent are connected to Christians across the ocean. Truly we are one in Christ. In Ephesians 2:19 Paul says that we are no longer strangers and aliens, but we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. In Ephesians 4 Paul says that there is one body and one Spirit just as there is one God and Father of all. In Revelation 7 John makes it clear that people from every nation, from all tribes and languages belong to God, even now. Children of God, one in Christ, members of the same body and of the household of God, individually members one of another. God connects and unites us, making us members of his mystical body......
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