Family

I know that these kids are just faces on a computer screen to you. I realize it is difficult to remember that they are real. Real people. Real stories. Real hearts. On the other side of the world, yes, but not so different from you and me. I even forget this sometimes. It's easy to write about their stories, but when I reach the second paragraph of my kid blogs, I am forced to remember. To recall their faces, their smiles, their laughs, and their tears. I wish so badly that you could know them. Maybe someday you will.


I've been researching African theology (I know, this is a very broad topic...) for a term paper in my lovely Contemporary Approaches to Theology class. I have been reading over and over again about a key aspect of African theology: Community. Family. Togetherness. Mbiti, a popular African theologian, described this with the statement: 

"I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am."

This community is not contained with walls or borders or last names or skin color or oceans. Even in the short time I was in Zimbabwe, I was considered a sister and daughter. I am valued as a family member. And you are too. These kids pray for you. They pray for America, for each of us who went to Zimbabwe in May, for our families and friends. They grasp the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, but I don't think that we do.

Everyone on the last night. Family.

This is so foreign to us as individualistic, independent Americans. And this is not meant to be a let's-bash-America session. Rather, let's hold onto the good parts of western ideology but not be bound by the bad. What if we started valuing everyone around us as family? What if we valued our FAMILY as family? How would our interactions change? How would we treat people? Let's be honest. We are horrible at this. I am the worst. Let's change it, eh?


"I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am."


And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25.