Recently I had a chat with my 9-year-old about 4th grade girl recess drama…who plays with who, who sits by who, who is first friends or best friends with who, and I was reminded that a sense of belonging runs deep. God created us with a desire to {be} with each other; a longing to commune and to bond.

Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. – Psalm 100:3

The need to belong runs so deep that we search earthly places to fill the need, groups at school, groups at college, groups as adults. Here is my sweet girl telling me that sometimes she feels a little left out of her friend group – not always, but sometimes, and I’m paralleling that to my life and wishing that feeling went away. I wish I could tell her that when you’re a grown up you feel like everyone is your friend all the time – but that isn’t true. Bless her sweet Jesus-loving heart, she nearly always wants to pray when things aren’t going her way. This day she asked to pray for comfort and that her feelings of sadness would go away. I was humbled that she didn’t pray for her friends to be “nicer” or to feel more popular, or anything materialistic that I might have prayed for at that age.

What IS true is that you’re older (whah whah) and wiser  – stick with me on the cliche, it’s legit. We know that the feeling of not belonging will pass and that fleeting friends will be besties again next week. What is always true is that the God of creation is bigger than all of it and we will always belong in the space we were created in the love of Christ and in the grace of the Father.