Have you met your family?


 Do you have a family photo album?  Perhaps you order one from Walmart after each vacation.  Perhaps there's a big old binder gathering dust somewhere in a corner of your home.  Over the next 6 weeks, we're going to blow the dust off the album and meet some of our spiritual sisters and brothers - the saints!  Actually, the spiritual ties between us and these holy wo/men are much stronger and more real than those that exist between us and our biological siblings.  As Christians, our truest Father is God, and all those who have received the Holy Spirit and daily cooperate with the grace of God are our true family.

Jesus said: "...“Who are my mother and my brothers?” 
And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
(Mark 3.33-35)


This is a radical thing to say, especially at that time and place, when and where family loyalty/solidarity were much more important than they are in today's western world.  We've all heard the saying, "Blood is thicker than water".  Actually, from God's point of view, the water of baptism is much thicker than family blood ties.

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