Daily Reading 13

"A prophet is honored everywhere except in his hometown and with his own people and in his own home." -Mark 6:4

"And he was amazed at their lack of faith." -Mark 6:6

So, I'm really far behind in my daily readings. It has been a week since I sat down to read and reflect. So, here we are, picking back up with the topic of Jesus' family.

I had never thought about Jesus' family much except for his mother and his father. He had siblings, though. Just like every family, they had their imperfections. I don't think that his family really was able to understand who he really was. I know that Mary and Joseph had been told that he was the Son of God. Don't you think they would probably have shared that with their kids?

When Jesus went out, no one from his hometown, including his family was very supportive. When he was being dragged off to die by people from his own community, his brothers weren't even around. Could it be that they knew who he was, but they were embarrassed? They didn't think the way that he did. They probably didn't agree with what he was doing by willingly going to die.

Lots of times, we wish that someone else understood. We have these ideas about how someone should act or think or respond to us. We do this a lot with family or close friends. I think what Jesus teaches us in this story is that we can't let the behavior of someone else control our own behavior. We can't demand that someone else think or feel or act the way that we think they should. Even family.

This is a hard concept to swallow. Jesus also tells us that we have family in our fellow believers. This is our spiritual family. When it comes to understanding each other spiritually, we can find that in others who are taking steps on their spiritual journey as well.

Even though it is hard sometimes to be in the middle of family stuff, we still have ways to connect with others and our Heavenly Father.