Family

Life is more than breathing and eating. Life is about living out the amazing opportunities that God puts before me on a daily basis, learning to push past the incarceration of my fears and shame to try something different or perhaps just share an introduction with a complete stranger at a picnic table outside the burger grill in Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, CA.
Family is like life. It's not just about the intergenerational passage of nucleotides, but a deep sense of connection that goes beyond metabolism and geneology. Family can include those who do not share actual blood lines: like your spouse, or perhaps an adopted child. Family can even include intimate friends, trusted and chosen people with whom you've made some form of covenant, like our "Tribe". I am Uncle, though I bear no relation outside of love for our Tribe and my god-children. It is the same, perhaps, with God. He chose me, not because I'm perfect... I suck at holiness. He chose me, because He loves me, and invites me (and you) into His household not as servants, but as His own Family.
Happy 4th, Dad.
Jim, in Novato, CA