Wednesday, January 4, 2023
The Eleventh Day of Christmas
Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
What’s a family for?
Andrew heard his teacher, John the Baptist, and followed Jesus. But first he tracked down his brother Simon in great excitement and told him, “We have found the Messiah!!!”
This happens over and over in our own families. I was a few years older than my brother John. I thought I knew everything. I imagine I am a lot like Simon. If John told me he had found the messiah, I can imagine my response.
“Oh, yeah? What do you know? I have enough problems already. Don’t talk to me about your solutions. So now you have two teachers to follow? What do you mean, messiah? Another one?”
And my brother John would have looked at me, looked down at the ground, not sure what to say next. Andrew decided to leave the persuading to Jesus. “Come and see.” John would have done the same thing, I think. “David, just come and see.” And Jesus would do what Jesus does:
You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas, which is translated Peter. Follow me.
“You are David, son of Roland and brother of John. Welcome! Follow me.”
And my mouth would be hanging open just like Simon’s, especially when all those fish jumped in his boat at dawn, after a lousy night trying on his own (Luke 5).
And my brother, like Andrew, would be so happy, not just to be right, but because now we could follow the messiah together. We help each other find the truth. We share it with our sister and brother and mother and father … whoever will listen. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. What are families for?
Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.
A friend asked his friend to marry him on Sunday. Kneeling in a melting ice rink (Austin winters aren’t great for ice rinks), he proposed to his friend and she said yes. She pulled him up off the very wet ice, and they hugged and kissed. His mother was taking a video from her hiding place, so that’s how we know all these details.
Her family was hiding too. Her dad told his new almost-son-in-law, “I was thinking for awhile there you were going to get cold feet.”
“I did have cold feet!” my friend said. “Freezing feet!”
What’s a family for?
Our daughter’s mother-in-law has been in lots of pain during the last 10 days. Then two nights ago she had to head for the emergency room. She stayed. Yesterday her gall bladder was successfully removed, robotically, through a small slit in her abdomen. All of the family came together. At no time was her mother-in-law alone. They will be there for every moment of her recovery.
What’s a family for?
No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God.
(1 John 3, Psalm 98, Hebrews 1, John 1)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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