Family, I thought, pulling out of the Bob Evans parking lot, is what matters most.
Rainy Monday mornings have a tendency to get me off on the wrong foot. I was driving out to school, mentally organizing the tasks of my day, when I received a call from my dad. The power was out and my sister and he were fixing to get some breakfast. Not one to turn down biscuits and gravy, I immediately turned around.
Pulling out of breakfast, reflecting on our “family” conversation, laced with inside jokes, musings on life, and general shenanigans, I couldn’t overcome the sensation in me that things were going to be alright.
And all of a sudden, the dreary drops of rain on my windshield weren’t as numerous as the items to be accomplished before me but the infinite number of things I had to rejoice in; the blessings so gratefully received–family among the foremost.
From a few feet away, I couldn’t help but notice the inseparable theme of family in Ephesians 5 – children imitating Father, Paul’s fraternal address to the Ephesians, the roles of wives and husbands.
Later today, I was reminded by a friend and mentor of a passage in Matthew that commands us to love our enemies.
“And what must you do before you love your enemies?” He asked. “Love your friends, I guess.” I replied. “And before them?”
Family. How can I expect to fulfill God’s call to love the unlovable if I am unwilling to do so with the “lovable?”
Family. God’s primary intended unit for building up the body; the “cells” of the tissue.
Family. Closely knit, reliable, and dependable when all else in life is unreliable.
Father,
Thank you for the brilliant idea of families. Thank you for the love that you have poured out into my life through my family to shape me into who I am. Continue to be the center of who we are.
-Christian
Sixty-six books in a year 