We are all part of a family. Most of us are part of more than one family.  There are birth families, adoptive families, friends that have become family, church families, work families--families of all shapes and sizes.  Family determines so much of who we are, through both nature and nurture, the family that we came from and the people we had chosen as family. The people we call family have helped shape us--for better or worse (and usually a little of both).

We are all part of a family, but not everyone feels as though they belong to a family.

People have been told they don't belong for a number of reasons from deeply held beliefs to definitely ridiculous notions :

Too liberal
Too conservative
Too feminist
Too redneck
Too loud
Too gay
Too promiscuous
Too prudish
Too many tattoos
Too few handbags

And then there are times, when we just feel (through no fault of of anyone else) that we just don't belong.

No one understands me.
No one has ever felt like this.
No one has an inkling of what I am going through.
No one likes my kind of music/movies/video games.

No matter what kind of families we have, we've all been there in one way, shape or form.

But even when others tell us we don't belong, even when we feel like we don't belong, we are still part of God's family. We have been adopted. Claimed by God. And that's even better than being created by God. As an adopted friend of mine used to say to kids who teased her about being adopted: your parents just had you, mine chose me. 

Not only did God create us, even after we had screwed up so much, God still decided to send God's only son and then make us heirs to the kingdom along with the fully human/fully divine Jesus Christ. 

We are co-heirs with Jesus! We have been adopted into the family of God. And no one can tell us we don't belong.