Brotherhood of Family

I can be friendly to a stranger or choose to be estranged from family, why this contradiction? Is it that we expect more from one than the other? Is it rivalry that drives us apart that we refuse to see our acknowledge a bond?

If we have chosen this life, these parents, this family, then are they not, too, part of the life lessons we came to learn? How can we be open to the Divine spirit in others and yet reject it in our own kin? Do we not wish to share with them what Divine love teaches us to share?

Are we not judging what God tells us not to judge? They may need our help and love more than the strangers we meet and welcome in the name of friendship. We must leave family and home when it is time to follow our own path, but it does not mean we must shut the door against them.

What would Jesus do? Who are we beneath the facade we have created, but all brothers and sisters in Christ. If we need love our neighbors as ourselves doesn't this include family?

If we go out to help the world but refuse to acknowledge one of our own are we truly being Christian? What about forgiveness? As you forgive you also will be forgiven. Does this mean it's okay not to forgive a brother or sister, but to ask for Divine forgiveness for ourselves?

Or should we seek first to mend the broken family ties? To forgive and ask to be forgiven? To release the anger, resentments, and hurt that keeps us from healing. God wants us to love and accept all His children with unconditional love for the Divine that is within all of us.

Stop expecting others to live up to our preconceptions and acknowledge that they are creations of Divine love and therefore deserving of our love.

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