Our Family

Family, important in our lives? YES!! Thanksgiving is coming up, and family is so nice to have around on holidays. This will be the 2nd Thanksgiving and Christmas since my Mom died. It's hard but at the same time, it seems family is that much more important to have around. Last year, on Thanksgiving we all went to Golden Corral, my dad's favorite restaurant. We ate, shared, laughed, cried, and leaned own each other, as we talked about missing our Mom, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother. But we were together, a family, loving each other and lifting each other up. Mark 3:31-35, tells us: " Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.”
Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at those
around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Wow, in this passage Jesus "Disrespected" His own Mom and brothers, for his friends. "Anyone who does God's will is my brother, sister, and mother." Does this mean that His real mom and brothers did not do God's will? I have asked myself that before, after reading this passage, but no. Jesus was saying, I think, that we all are family, who serve the Lord.
Remember the song by "Sister Sledge" , I think, "We are family, I got all my sisters with me........" We, as Christians, do "have all our "Sisters" with us, and our Brothers, and our Mothers, and most importantly Jesus Christ, and His Dad God, Jehovah, the maker of, well EVERYTHING. Talk about a GREAT FAMILY!!
When my family got together over a Thanksgiving meal, we felt each others emotions, the loss of our Mom, the Joys, and remembrances of her life, the
FUN that was my Mom. This is what families do, they share in everything. I hate to tell you this, but I am your brother, I want to be there for all your times, your good ones, your bad ones, you GREAT ones. Why, because I care. You are my family, we have our FATHER in common.
I remember when my ex wife and I got divorced, I wondered how weird it was that you could divorce a wife, but you stuck with your family. Does this mean spouses are NOT FAMILY? No, I don't think so, My ex-wife is still the mother of our children, and I still care for her. But it is not the same as family. I think it should be, but that is best left for another day.
"Stuck with your family" you hear and see this phrase a lot, you can divorce your spouse, but your stuck with your family. Doesn't matter WHAT your family does, you love them, and support them. How does the mother of a serial killer feel when her son is in prison for life, or on death row? She hurts for her son, she wants him to have enough blankets, eat enough, be healthy. Yes he may have killed a lot of people, but he is still her son.
Family, the ties will never be broken. You see movies all the time about a broken relationship in the family. Two brothers haven't talked to each other in years and years because of some argument they more then likely, don't even remember. And by the end of the show, they are together again, loving on each other and going, say, fishing every Saturday. Usually not the way life works, that fast, but this is Hollywood , all the loose ends must come together in, at the most 2 and a half hours.

I am not sure all my family can make it this year to Golden Corral here in Austin, (The one on Parmer Lane and North Lamar, Just off I-35 In Beautiful Austin Texas) So if you don't have any family to spend Thanksgiving with, come on, your family too. It's "all you can eat buffet, so come hungry} Maybe we can talk Dad into watching the football games after we go home, stuffed and very full.
I don't always like things my family does, maybe disagree with them on something, but they are Family.
Remember the Godfather? Family was everything to these Mobsters. Without Family there lives were meaningless.
If you serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, then your my family, I would do anything I could for you. (sorry, Like "The Godfather", I would NOT "Rub anyone out" for you!} But short of that, just ask, your Family, after all.
If you ever wondered this is why a lot of churches call each other "Sister" and "Brother" so and so. Because we are all Sisters and Brothers, and we "Got all our Sisters (Family) with me"