It's a Family Thing

Aren't families interesting? We all belong to one (or more than one). No matter how messy ours is, it would be very hard to think about living in this world without it.

My sisters and brothers can drive me crazy, but I love them none the less. I have a relationship with my siblings that could best be described as toxic when fewer than two states separate us. I think I like email and internet connections to my family the best. I can love them and keep up with their lives from a very comfortable distance.

God placed me in my family for a reason. I can accept that statement at face value, but I still wonder what He could have been thinking! These people are nothing like me; and don't even get me started on their politics. And yet, would I have become the writer that I am had I not spent so many hours imagining myself somewhere other than the attic in which my loving brother used to lock me? Hmm. Would I have any understanding of intercessory prayer if my sister hadn't needed so much prayer when she went off to "find herself" and trouble seemed to be her constant companion?

Don't get me wrong, I have wonderful memories of the years I lived with my brothers and sisters. I can still remember camping in that big tent on hot summer nights. We could hear the crickets and owls and other creatures, but we were safe in our canvas home because we weren't alone. Some of those camping trips are my best memories, and we never really went anywhere exciting, but we were together.

God is our eternal Father. He is eternally Fathering us as we wander through this wasteland searching for the promised land. But at least he didn't create us to wander all alone, he gave us families so that while we wandered we could fight over every little thing every moment. So you see, we have finally come to the answer to that age old question.

He started it! It's all God's fault.

Pax