How big is my family 2)

After all the congregational interaction I mentioned a visit to a primary school where a board was covered with many little figures clustered according to family size underneath the question HOW BIG IS MY FAMILY?   The children counted their immediate family groups at home - an obvious place to start.  But easily this number grows as grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. are added in.  And if you plot a family tree you have a bigger dimension still.

I made a couple of general points. 

1.  Families can be great to belong to.  After all we belong naturally, sharing the last name with relationships and memories grown through belonging together. Old photographs show past Christmases under the tree, holidays with ice cream on our faces and milestone birthdays. With smiles all round.  At its best, families mean that we can relax and be real, for no one knows us better and is so closely related. We are blood relations.

2. Families can be complicated to belong to.  Because we didn't choose the others in our family. Your parents, brothers, sisters are givens - whether you like it or not.  And relationships can be difficult and fragile. A woman said to me: 'I have a sister but I fell out with her years ago. We don't speak.'  Parents can divorce and siblings fall out with each other.  Badly. Sometimes family life can be wonderful.  But at other times it can be horrendous.

We needed to hold these two things in mind as we turned to Scripture.