Family
"A father of the fatherless," "God setteth the solitary in families:"
Family was the original design for everything. Family is literally what this all has been about: closeness, connection, love. Being so deeply entrenched in the Trinity. Us in Him and Him in us. I don't think that we're supposed to become the 4th member of the Trinity or anything, but surrounded by the Trinity, walking in harmony and constant connection. Jesus became human so that we could see a perfect model of the Christian walk. He said that He didn't do anything apart from His father.
When did we lose how we interact with each other? The family of Christ, the Body of Christ, has become such a polarized and separated people. It looks normal because it's what I'm used to, but if I stop to really think about it, it is so sad and so out of balance.
We look at other Christians as "other" instead of "brother". Humanity's origin was "Let's make something like us, who can love like we do and who can interact like we do." THAT IS THE DESIRE FOR FAMILY.
I don't remember when I changed, but I went from viewing family as kind of pointless: like these are just random people who I sometimes have fun with, but otherwise, don't really serve me. And because of that, I would interact only as much as it could make me feel good, or feel productive in some way, so I would feel justified in isolating myself and being obsessed with getting my own thing done. Something changed in me (I have a suspicion that it was a particular Holy Spirit reprioritizing things for me), and I have become obsessed with family, with connection and closeness. I would drop everything if my whole family gathered and milled around the kitchen. We don't have to really do anything together, just being in the same room, being together is enough for me. There is a deep love and contentment from family that we will not be able to find anywhere else. There is also a humility and struggle and molding.
And He designed it that way.
I have become obsessed with family, ravenous for it, no amount of time is too much or enough. I am obsessed with the struggle of it, and the (hopeful) reconciliation and deepening of "I love you no matter what". It's my favorite.
(NOTE: I have been very blessed with the family I have. If your family is toxic or abusive or even manipulative, then think of your friends, think of those people that have formed your internal family, the people who aren't blood who have changed you deeply and whom you will love forever. In my mind, family is synonymous with "bonded connection and understanding", if that makes any sense.)
Our family is where we first model God's love to ourselves, to others, to the world. For better or worse, that is where strong love and relationship is revealed.
When I think of Jesus and family, I think of 1. His thirty years of life on earth before His Ministry (capital M) began. What did He do with all of that time? He lived life and loved people and enjoyed sunsets and food and listened to conversations around dinner tables. 2. Luke 6:1 says that He and His disciples walked through a corn field, picking the corn and rubbing them in their hands. When I first read that verse, I was surprised because I could see that picture so clearly, I could feel the peace, I could feel the casualness of it: Jesus and His friends who love Him so much walking together and picking food, rubbing it free of dirt and corn-silk, and just eating together. It felt so wholesome and wonderful and a part of me wanted to be a part of that moment. 3. John 21:9 After Jesus died and went through torture, after He rose to life through the power of the Holy Spirit, when His disciples were out fishing, He waited on the shore, built a fire, laid fish on the fire, and had bought bread for His friends. That took time and work, so that He could make a meal for His family and eat with them.
I don't know if I'm reading into things, but those things feel like a quiet declaration of what is important. It's family, it's enjoying people, it's connection and fOOD. We were not meant to live alone: God made a helpmate for Adam, and He made family because that is what He IS: the Trinity, separate but One, connected and whole.
He has made Himself so available and so knowable and so so close. He tore the veil! He didn't have to, but He did. He is the all powerful God, creator of the universe: He could have designed salvation with no relationship, but He designed it so that we could be close with Him, so that we could rejoin the circle of family.
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