Family Adventure
I am recovering from a family extravaganza that began with a fun-filled visit with my brother-in-law, his wife, and their three children and ended with a weeklong visit from my mother-in-law and her husband. There has been a mountain of laughter, a passel of hugs, and so many pictures taken that I blink every time someone says the word cheese!
As I sit here marveling at all the memories made over the past month I am struck by just how special family really is. Family is far more than just the basic social unit of society; it is the fabric that wraps us in loving arms at birth, shapes our lives along the way, and then holds our hand as we end our journey on this side of the great divide and enter the next life.
The people I am blessed to call family come in different sizes, shapes, colors, and may or may not be related to me by blood. They are there when I just have a bad hair day or when my world falls apart. They comfort and console me; they pat me on the back or kick me in the pants. They can drive me crazy in ways only someone I love can and they generally make life worth living.
I find it fascinating that God in His infinite wisdom places people in families. We do not come in eggs, laid somewhere and then forgotten. Instead we arrive as helpless babies completely dependent on those around us to meet our every need.
I have often said that the reason God sends us as babies instead of, say a two-year-old, is that by the time a baby hits the terrible twos or acquires a sixteen-year-olds smart mouth their parents are so in love with them they don't return them to the Sender! Imagine if God had chosen to deliver a person into a family at the age of two or sixteen (I know what you are thinking! That would be a bad Ouchy! But since we are imagining please imagine that they are delivered in a different physical way too!) I am sure not nearly as many people would choose to have children!
If you think about it our Christian family is much the same as our biological family in that we do not choose them God does. They come in all shapes and sizes and they perform some of the same tasks in our lives. They are often closer to us than our own family but they can still drive us crazy too!
But our Christian sisters and brothers are also unique in that our bond goes far beyond our own blood. They are related to us in the blood of Jesus Christ the only one who can bond us into the family of God as joint heirs! My brother and I may be heir to my earthly father's fortune (sorry, I got carried away!) But imagine sitting down at the King's table with Jesus the Son not as an invited guest but as family! It is almost too wonderful to imagine!
Ah, family! It just may be one of the most wonderful blessings provided by God. I don't know about you but both my blood-relatives and my blood-bought relatives are a gift that I treasure!
P.S. This weekend we are entertaining one of our sons and his wife--so please pass the camera and say cheese!