Jacob
woke up and said, “The Lord is here! He is in this place, and I
didn't know it!” He was afraid and said, “What a
terrifying place this is! It must be the house of God; it must be the
gate that opens into heaven.”
Genesis
28:16 (Good News Bible)
Forming Families on the Fly
Families can be great, and they
can be painful, often at the same time. If you think that things were
better long ago, sneak into your kids room, borrow the "Good
News Bible" they were presented with when they were in the third
grade, and read from Genesis, starting at Chapter 12 until the end.
You'll be reading one of the very first family sagas, and even if you
judge it as just literature, it's not all bad as a
complex and challenging story. Of course, you can use your own
Bible, but the Good News was done to tell stories and consequently
might be just a more fun read than other Bibles.
Anyway, at the point where the
above verses occur, Jacob is in the process of figuring out who he
is, and who God wants him to be. He's on the run from his brother
Esau and is starting out alone.
I think that many of us have
found ourselves alone in a new place like Jacob. We may not be
on the run, but work, school, or other life situations have made it
necessary to leave our families and go elsewhere to be with people we
don't know and maybe can't trust. Since we are social beings, we look
for family replacements, people we can enjoy being with, people that
we can trust, people who will love and accept us. I call
this "forming families on the fly."
One of the great resources for
forming "Families on the Fly" is your congregation,
especially one like FPCB with our commitment to inclusion and
community. One reason is that we are all, in some way, trying
to understand the God who is here and that we don't see. A God
who calls us and forms us using the people around us.
Is it a silver bullet, will you
just automatically click with everyone in the congregation? Well,
probably not, after all we are all human but the odds are better than
a random choice and if your experience is anything like mine you'll
find some real people treasures along the way. Who knows, you might
have some really interesting, caring and loving brothers, sisters,
cousins, grandparents and more if you make the effort to reach out
and connect.
Loving God, be with us when
we believe that we are totally alone. Help us to see the people
around us as the gifts you want us to have, and to be the gifts to
others that you want us to be. Help us to live in this complex world
as we form families on the fly with people who may only be with us
briefly or who might be lifelong caring family members. Either
way, help us to accept your gift and to be that gift to others. In
the name of Jesus we pray. Amen
Terry Chaney
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