by Karen Statham
The word “family” conjures up pictures of diversity and change. Nuclear, adopted, broken and blended are all words that identify what a “family” might look like. But it does not capture the feelings of love, care, comfort and joy that ground a family.
I hail from a nuclear family which then became a divorced/broken family and now a blended family. We were the original Brady Bunch – five of us and three of them. Two loving people found each other and decided “this group must somehow form a family”. I’m not sure exactly when it happened…there were trials, anger, fear…and then…there was family. Dad and Mom raised up eight kids to “see and hear” each other and to love, honor, cherish and respect each other. We have practiced those learnings for the last 47 years.
Our picture of family changed catastrophically in the last two weeks. But, we are still connected by history, marriage and birth. We are interconnected by our faith in God’s never failing love. Of everything Dad and Mom taught each of us, the belief that faith is at the root of what defines us as family, is without a doubt, the most important.
All family pictures change. The steadfastness of God’s love provides each family the grounding to weather those changes and to stay not just connected, but interconnected.
Does God welcome families? Yes, no matter what the picture.
