All in the Family
When God created the world, and added human kind into the mix, he started with just one then completed His work by adding the second, making the family the personal human context for knowing God and exploring His purpose for our lives in the world. The life that Adam lived, identifying and naming animals, bringing familiarity and understanding to his existence was not what completed Adam. What made Adam whole, and what made the world “very good,” was the perfectly complementing relationship with Eve. What made Adam whole and sound and stable and complete was being in a family.
Family appears to be important to God. When God saved the entire human race in the days of the flood, He saved a family. When God chose a people out of all the people of the earth to make His own special, chosen people, He picked a family. When God came to earth, took on the form of a servant and became a man, He came as a child to a family and grew to manhood in the context of a family. And when God brought together diverse people from every tongue and tribe and nation to make them one through faith in Jesus Christ, he prescribed and described them as a family.
Families are the context in which human beings explore and experience life and God most intimately. Unfortunately, as a result of sin, families are not perfect and cannot automatically provide a perfect environment for experiencing God perfectly, but, they remain God’s chosen tool for teaching us the joy of deep, loving, sacrificial relationships that make us whole persons and help us to understand God who exists in relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps family is the reason, among others, Jesus commanded His disciples to “Love one another.” That command, “love one another,” that’s family language. Jesus seems to have laid down a singular rule for those who follow him: in relation to one another, be the best of family. I think of the words of that country gospel song we sang in church and at camp meetings when I was growing up, The Family of God:
You may notice we say, “Brother,” and “Sister,” round here. It’s because we’re a family, and these folks, are so dear.
Families, by biblical definition, share a common ancestry, a common DNA, a common history, a common culture, a common experience, and a common love that nurtures a common responsibility and desire for one another’s well-being as a component of the health of all. So, in the context of love and obedience to Christ, his family prays together, learns together, strives together, worships together, serves together, stands together, suffers together, rejoices together, loves together.
Jesus meant for His followers to be family, in the very best, “very good” of creation sense. Today, we each have an opportunity to love with the best of love the members of the family that surround us. What will you do today to love the family?
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