the Perfect Christian Family

I wonder what the Perfect Christian family looks like. Is it a family that has everything together? Their kids perfectly obey them? Are they always happy? Is it one where the family sits down together to pray and read scripture? This is way to perfect! Yet somehow this has become the standard bearer for a lot of Christian families. So families who are hurting and struggling find themselves in the midst of trying to hold it all together so they can look "perfect." Yet this is so often the image for which we strive. But what I read in the bible is about families following God in the midst of their messiness.

 You would have thought that the first family (Adam and Eve) had some freshness and might have lacked the craziness of the modern day family. Cain and Abel who are Adam and Eve's first children ended up having a not so happy story. Cain gets mad at Abel and leads him out in to a field and kills him. Great! The first families kids literally kill each other.

 And then one might assume that Jesus was the best and sweetest child in the world. Yet in Luke 2 a story is told where the family makes a journey to Jerusalem. Then the family leaves with a big group of people and Mary and Joseph days in to the journey realize that Jesus is not with them. All the while 12 year old Jesus is teaching back in Jerusalem and everyone is amazed except his parents! This is what Mary and Joseph said to the savior of the world, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Listen! Your father and I have been worried. We've been looking for you?" Even the Son of God has family issues! Jesus' relationship with his family and his calling were at often times at odds.

 Last Sunday we talked about that a healthy family brings life. In the ten commandments it says that if you honor your father and mother your days will be long! Now a healthy family is not what I described above. It is far from it. No a healthy family recognizes that we all have issues to sort through just like any other family. Scripture teaches that we share in each other sufferings and bare one another burdens. This is what Jesus did on the cross. And it through this way that we find life. Not by hiding behind the illusion of so called perfection.