We Are Family... yeah yeah!

Most of the time, I don't do a very good job of loving my family. By and large, they do an AMAZING job of loving me, even when I least deserve it.

Recently, a series of unfortunate events occurred in my life. The most unfortunate of these was completely my fault (school-related, again). In my eyes, it was a huge, life-changing issue. I stayed up almost all night before talking to my parents, convinced that they would never look at me the same way. And then, the most astonishing thing happened - they decided to love me.

Very rarely in my life have I seen God pour out his grace and mercy so fully. There I was, prepared for my family to reject me in full, say I'd betrayed them, or just cut me out of their lives. "This is too much," they'd say, or "We just can't deal with you anymore."

But they didn't. They came to me and put their arms around me. They held me while I cried, they comforted me and supported me. They acknowledged my mistakes and sins, but they also forgave me. At one point, my mom asked, "Will this matter in 20 years?" And you know, it will. But it will matter because of how they loved me, not because of how my mistake looks now.

And the thing is, not everyone has a family like mine. Some people have family that would rather disown them than deal with the difficult mess relationships can be, and some people don't have any family at all.

I mean sure, my family is still dysfunctional even at the best of times, but like I said, they're pretty good at loving me, even when I don't deserve it. Even better than that, though, is the Lord's great love for me. If I have learned NOTHING else this past year, I have certainly learned more about his sovereign power and love. My family's astounding, gracious, overwhelming, compassionate response is just a vague shadow of God's love for us.

"Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here;
Sin would reduce me to utter despair;
But, through Thy free goodness, my spirits revive,
And He that first made me still keeps me alive!"