Together

A Brazilian named Dimas Aliprandi always wondered why he had blonde hair and blue eyes while his sisters had dark hair and eyes. His suspicions grew when, at age 14, he saw a news report about babies getting switched at birth at the hospital. He asked his father about a DNA test, but was told it was too expensive. In December 2008, at age 24, he decided to pay for one himself. The results? He was not the birth son of the man and woman who raised him.

His shocked parents at first refused to believe it, but eventually decided to help him look for his biological parents. The search began at Madre Regina Protmann Hospital, where he was born. The hospital searched its records and found that Elton Plaster had been born there the same day.

Dimas found Elton Plaster on a 35-acre coffee and vegetable farm, where he lived and worked with his parents. The Plasters agreed to the DNA tests. The findings: the two boys had been switched at birth.

What could have been a traumatic situation turned out to be a blessing to both families. Dimas and his parents accepted an offer from the Plasters to move to their farm, where they built a home. Now they live and work on the farm together. Both of the young men feel blessed by the new circumstances. The discovery that they had been switched at birth “sparked a desire” to join their families together.

Adelson Plaster told Globo TV, “This is the way it should be!  We are ALL TOGETHER and I now have TWO sons living and working here.” *

It is God’s desire that each and every person born into the world also be born of “water and the Spirit” into ONE family, to become one of His children (John 3:5).  But our sins separate us from God..... (see Isaiah 59:1-2).

But because of His great love for us, God gave Jesus His Son to die on the cross for our sins (1 Peter 1:24).  Through His atoning sacrifice, we may have forgiveness of our sins and become part of the Family of God - the Church (Eph 1:7; Acts 2:38, 41-47)

It does not matter as to the color of one’s hair, one’s eyes, or one’s skin, “whosoever will” may be joined TOGETHER in God’s “forever” family – the family for which Christ will come one day and take home to heaven (see 1 Corinthians 15:24).

YOU can be a part of God’s family if you will accept His invitation through your trusting obedience: Place your faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from your sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  THEN you will be added to God’s family, TOGETHER with ALL those who have submitted to His will.

Won’t YOU?

David A. Sargent, Minister