“Whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.”
—Mark 3.35
In a culture where family is right up there
with God, maybe higher—
Jesus says, “Yeah, family is it.
But family isn’t blood.
It’s love.”
Without, by the way, a “father,”
an authority figure. Just God.
No more tiny family,
with my little fence around who I care for,
who I’m responsible to.
Instead you give me this infinite family.
All those who follow you differently than I do—
I belong to them. We are one.
I am to care as much about strangers as my own sister,
respect opponents no less than my own brother,
honor people so unlike me as my own mother.
And this miracle: though it seems hard
to love them all as if they are mine,
when I do—
I come home.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
June 2, 2021