Family

I’ve been thinking a lot about family lately.  Five of my favorite quotes on family have surfaced:

• “A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold.” — Poet, Ogden Nash,
• “In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.” — German Philosopher. Friedrich Nietzsche.
• “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” — Comedian, George Burns
• “Families are like fudge—mostly sweet with a few nuts.” — Comedian, Les Dawson.
• “Family: like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.” – Unknown

Speaking of family, I was looking through some old family pictures recently and found a family Christmas picture from the early 1960s.  In the picture were my grandparents, my parents, my aunt and uncle and their two kids (my cousins), my younger brother, and me.  Several facts came to me as I studied the picture:

• As of last month’s two deaths, everyone in the picture is deceased except me.
• My family is all in heaven thinking I didn’t make it.
• I’m glad to be the “last man standing.”
• How blessed I was to have such a family.

While it was written about the “family of God” it certainly fits our “family “ when Paul says, “individually members of one another” (Romans 12:5).