Why is God constantly gathering us together?

I am pondering God’s creation and God’s relationship to it.  In the Book of Genesis God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”  From the beginning of human existence, the point has been made repeatedly that we are not created to be separated and alone.  Rather, God calls us into relationship with Him and also into relationship with other followers.  God seems to always be gathering His people together.  In Psalm 50 God says, “Gather my faithful ones before me…”  In Zechariah 10 God says, “I will whistle for them to come together.  Moses is constantly being admonished to speak to the people and gather the people.  In the New Testament Jesus gathers a group of Apostles.  These Apostles go out and gather in even more.  The point is simply this; we are made to be together.
Why is God constantly gathering us together?  Because that is how we are made.  We are made in the image of the Blessed Trinity.  God is not just Father, or Son, or Holy Spirit.  God is three divine persons sharing the one nature.  Like the Trinity, we are made to be in communion with others, and most especially God.  This is our ultimate destiny.  We will be taken into the inner life of the Trinity for all eternity.  It is how our hearts are made.
This communion of persons which is the Trinity, means that each person makes of gift of himself or herself to the others and receives the gift of the other persons.  This too then, is our eternal destiny.  But while we live in our fallen nature and we so misunderstand who we are and how we are made we forget that we are made for heaven, not for this earth.
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t embrace life.  It means that we should understand how we are made and for whom we are made.  Part of this self-understanding is to realize that God calls us together as His people, and He also calls us to be part of a family.  We will reflect on that over the next few blogs.
Want to hear more about the Family of God? Consider attending the One Faith One Family Conference the weekend of March 17-18.  Find details at mobarch.org/one-faith-one-family 
— Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected]