Family

Family

Ephesians 4:1-7

            “Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.”

            I don’t know who first said this, but I know it is mostly true—and should be always true.  There should be one place in this world where each of us is always welcome, and that should be the place we call home.  Notice I said that’s the place we call home.  It may not be our original home, but it is the place where we feel at home, wherever that place may be, and no matter how near to or far from our original home it may be.

            We know this is not true for everyone.  Many people have lost their homes to the ravages of war.  Their homes no longer exist.  Almost daily we see scenes of bombed out villages and cities, buildings reduced to rubble, people standing in the street with no place to go, or on the road going somewhere—anywhere to escape the ruin around them.

            Others have lost their homes due to their own behavior.  Perhaps addiction has cost them their home and family, or perhaps their unruly, even criminal actions have caused the loss.  Perhaps it is not their fault, but something has gone wrong and they can’t go home again.

            I can think of no greater tragedy than a person who does not have a place to go where she knows she will be taken in.  We know of families that are homeless, and that is tragic, but for a single person, all alone, to have no place to turn to, no one to open the door for him, no family to welcome him home—that is tragedy upon tragedy.

            I think the loss of home is felt particularly deeply when it involves children. Yes, we are all someone’s child, but when young, innocent lives are deprived of home and family we feel the loss much more acutely.

            Paul had a lot to say about families.  Important statements are scattered throughout his letters.  His concern was with the family of God more than the human family, but for him the human family was a metaphor for God’s family.  He speaks of being adopted into God’s family, belonging not by birth (Remember, for Paul, the Jews were God’s chosen people—God’s family; the rest of humanity were outsiders who had to be “grafted” in.) but by God’s love reaching out to everyone.

            In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul moves past adoption when he speaks of the unity of God’s family.  Listen to his bold statement: “There is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.”  Someone has said that one is the loneliest number, but when we are united in one family that one becomes an all-inclusive number.  Paul tells us that our one Father, “is over all, and through all, and in all,” connecting us together as the roots of trees connect to each other underground, enriching and strengthening the whole of them and allowing them to stand more securely than they could on their own.

            Can this unity of God’s family be translated into creating and sustaining human families?  I tell my students that this is a teacher question.  We already know the answer before it’s asked:  It’s a resounding, “Yes!”  Carol Bellamy provided an important part of the answer when she said, “By investing in children and the families that sustain them, the nation is ultimately investing in its own development.” 

As Christians, we are called to provide welcoming, loving family experiences for every child we can possibly help.  This means we have to stop prattling about family values, and using the phrase as a political football, and get to work creating and sustaining these families.  It won’t be easy—but no one ever said God’s work was easy.  That’s why so few people do it.