Family

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We Are Family!
(I’ve Got All My Sisters, Brothers And Me!)
© 2006
by

Stephen A. Peterson


Austin and Maricon Sofsky’s three grown children make their homes in faraway cities. The eldest, Stephen, a violinist, is employed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra after graduating from the Julliard School of Music. Callie, their only daughter, a pediatrician, is employed at the Mayo clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota. Patrick recently graduated from the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma in Chemical Engineering. He accepted a position in Seattle, Washington. Education and career opportunities drew the Sofsky children from the rural Earlsboro, Oklahoma. Austin and Maricon encouraged their children to develop their skills and go where they needed to in life. The elder Sofskys still, however, miss their childrens’ presence.

Gwen Watson’s brothers and sisters all married and moved from the family home. Then her mother and father sold their large Holdenville, Oklahoma home and bought a condominium in nearby Oklahoma City. Gwen had her own apartment in Edmond, Oklahoma. However, when her family no longer present, she felt lost, cut off…isolated…frighten.

These two scenarios can ring painfully true for many of us who come from families large or small. The loss of a natural family proximity comes to most of us at some time of another and a want to be as it was. And if our family has been a nurturing one, it has been our defense against loneliness and a support against uncertainty. That loss, at times, can be devastating.

Jesus understood that. He, in a dramatic and tender gesture to all lonely and detached people of His world and ours , stretched out His land to His disciples and said, “Behold my mother and my brothers!” Imagine, if you will, the chock Jesus must have caused everyone who heard His words.

“What is He talking about? What is He doing? Why is He doing this? Aren’t we family?” they must have said under their breathes as they sized up on another.

But really isn’t true? When we accepted Jesus Christ and He became Lord of our life didn’t we become members of His family?

Today at work, in school or at home think about that: The boss who seems so standoffish is your brother… That girl who is overweight and seemingly has no friends ins your sister… That elderly woman who knocked on your door yesterday afternoon asking for a couple of dollars to get herself a little to eat might be your sister too or…Jesus Christ Himself!

“Family” life can never be more fulfilling than when we can open our hands and stretch forth our arms and say to every person regardless of race, religion or national origins—These are my parents, my sisters and brothers!”

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