September 7, 2022

Reflection

SIBLINGS

If someone used the word "sibling" when I was a kid in the 1940's, I would have had no clue what it meant. I'd probably think it was someone's last name.

Today it's used. Is it because there are less kids in families? It seems to me that kids know and like that word "sibling".

I had 3 siblings: a brother and 2 sisters.

Our siblings are with us for a lifetime. And it sometimes takes us a lifetime to figure our what's with our brothers and sisters.

In listening to people talk about their life, I hear expectations they have about their brothers and sisters - their siblings.

In listening to people talk about their siblings, I hear them say they have not told different siblings their expectations of them. 

In listening to people talk about their siblings, I sometimes hear them say they are still living in the shadow of a brother or a sister.

In listening to people talk about their siblings, I sometimes hear about the absence - or distancing - they experienced from one or their siblings.

Sometimes it's just the opposite.

Jesus was an only child - yet he often talks about brothers - and there is mention in his life of his visits to Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus.

Jesus called brothers: James and John, Peter and Andrew.

And Christianity talks about all of us being siblings to each other - but they don't use the word "sibling". 

Interesting ....

Yet blood is thicker than thoughts and words - so we drink the precious blood from the family table - so that we become family and siblings to each other.