Families

Our God is so wise. I see His wisdom every time I see a family together.

The other day we went to the zoo in Nashville. It was a beautiful day. We were with some of our family. There were lots of families there that day. There was the family with 2 little dark headed kids in a wagon. There was another with several older children — all had the same beautiful red hair. Just as that family passed by, a couple of kids who, because of their very blonde hair, were obviously siblings.

I love seeing physical similarities in families. When I was a teenager, I baby sat for a large family. On a wall in a long hall were portraits of each baby at about a year old with the mother. The 8 babies had just two looks. It reminded me of the puppies on Lady And The Tramp. The mother in each of these portraits was fascinating as well. Her hairstyle and clothing style changed gradually as each baby was born. The family resemblance was obvious in this family.

Facebook has allowed me to make contact with distant cousins that I have had no other way of getting to know. I love looking at pictures of them and their families. The family resemblance isn’t always strong but it is there. In the eyes or in the lips or a facial expression I see my mother, my aunt, myself.

Some of the family has shared very old pictures of relatives long gone. There are those same eyes, lips and facial expressions. Years later, the same looks are passed down from one generation to another.

When I see a family together I rejoice in the wisdom of God. There are many ways He could have chosen to perpetuate the human race. We see so many ways He chose to perpetuate various animal species. Some lay eggs and are gone before the babies are ever born. The babies fend for themselves. Some have babies and just the mom cares for them. Some have babies who are tended to by the entire animal group. Some even have the dad as the caretaker.

God designed the human family to be made up of a Mom and a Dad who stay together for life, who have children and take care of them for a very long time as they gradually mature into adults who can carry on in the same manner. Each child is to be loved, cherished, taught, nourished and cared for.

What a perfect arrangement. How much better this is than what we have attempted to do to improve things. Daycare centers full of little children in an overstimulating environment 5 days a week for as long as 10 hours a day. Large schools where 200, 300, 1000 or more children are sent to be taught by people who don’t know them and, while they are doing the best they can, can’t love them like their mom and dad.

God’s design for the family allows for each child to be special to a core group of people. The child feels secure and knows he is loved. He learns to get along with others by spending many hours with his siblings. He learns the importance of working together. He learns that he is valuable as he fulfills the jobs necessary for the comfort of the family. He learns about God through his parents. They share God with him through their actions and through teaching him the Bible. He learns how to be a leader of his family or she learns to be a nurturing mother.

This is God’s plan for the family.

It is true that sometimes things don’t work out as planned. One or more parent may die young. Sin may infiltrate the household leaving the children abandoned or split between loving mother or father who don’t love each other any longer. It is sad to witness and must be very hard to endure.

We must all work hard to keep our family secure. Love one another. Nurture one another. Encourage one another to be devoted to God. The way God planned it to be from the beginning.

Genesis 2:21-24:

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
And Adam said:

“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Jesus restated it clearly in Matthew 19:3-6:

The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”