Sharing Scripture — July 23, 2022

Aaron Fowler of Nova Scotia shaved his head when was 30 years old. That’s when people started telling him “Oh, you look just like The Rock,” AKA wrestler and film star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. When The Rock began rising on the wrestling scene around the year 2000, people started telling Trevor Edwards of Montreal that he looked a lot like him also. It turns out that Aaron and Trevor are actually half brothers with The Rock—something they never knew until DNA tests recently confirmed it.

Through DNA tests, Facebook searches, and Ancestry.com research, the brothers connected with three other siblings.  These half-siblings live throughout Canada, and they never knew of each other’s existence. They are now connected by a common thread—their biological father, WWE wrestler Rocky Johnson abandoned them all.

Fortunately, the siblings only exhibit a physical resemblance to their father and don’t reflect his character. After living with the pain of rejection and growing up fatherless, these five siblings now take comfort in the acceptance of their newly discovered extended family.

Life’s trials can lead us to two possible outcomes: we can become embittered and allow them to drag us down and drive us away from God, or we can become empowered as we turn to Christ for strength to overcome the challenges. One way to experience this empowerment is to cling to the promise that God will never leave us nor forsake us. God has never abandoned us. That promise of acceptance into our heavenly family can give us the boost we need to power through our struggles.

As we grow and mature through life’s hardships, we begin to take on the character of Christ. Just as the goldsmith refines gold in the furnace until it’s so pure it perfectly reflects the goldsmith’s face, so we are purified through trials until we rightly reflect Christ’s character.

As we share in the sufferings of Christ, we understand just a bit more of what it took to provide for our salvation. We learn how important it is to help relieve the sufferings of others. Our ultimate goal in this life, then, is to become so Christlike that, when people see us, they see Jesus.

Connecting: How would you honestly feel if you discovered that you have a previously unknown sibling? Would you embrace that person? Or would you avoid them?

Applying: The thought of having to be perfectly Christ-like can be depressingly overwhelming. Try to keep a realistic perspective by reviewing scriptural promises that remind you that by faith Jesus is your Savior, not works.