An old man was camping in a field by a country road when he discovered a teenage girl hiding in some bushes nearby. She was cold and hungry, so he invited her to his campfire and gave her a blanket and food. She told him she had run away from home because no one there cared for her and she was better off being alone.
The old man told her of a game he played with his sons when they were little. He'd give them each a stick and asked if they could break it. Each of them quickly snapped the stick in half. Then he gave them handful of sticks and asked if they could break them all at once. They'd try and try but were unable to break the small bundle of sticks when held together.
"That single stick is you," he told the girl, "and the bundle of sticks is family. Alone you can break, but with family you are much stronger." In the morning the girl was gone, but where she had slept lay the small bundle of sticks. She'd realized being with family was better and safer than being alone.
Last weekend Carol and I attended a family wedding and enjoyed the many sisters and brothers, cousins, nephews and nieces and children darting here and there. It was a beautiful wedding, and the experience of being with family was strengthening.
Besides the joy of seeing a new couple married in Christ, there was some drama with problems of age and personalities. But it was family, our family, and the bundle of God's love held each one other together and showed strength in its numbers. Psalm 68:6 tells us, "God brings the lonely into families."
Now and then there is a family surprise. The bride was our niece, and we discovered one of the couples close to the groom there were members from a former congregation. It was fun renewing our acquaintance and seeing how God brings people together from many different places. Family is made strong when it is knit together of many different strands.
"A cord of three strands is not easily broken." (Ecclesiastes 3:13)
Have you thanked God for your family recently?
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