29 December 2024 #imperfectlyamazing
For the longest time, I had a saying written across my teenage girls’ bathroom mirror: “You don’t have to be perfect to be amazing.” It was meant to remind them that in the messiness and imperfections of those middle-and-high school years, they still had the opportunity to be amazing. I feel that way about families too. Family life can be messy, there’s no doubt about that. An imperfect man and imperfect woman come together in love and grace to co-create imperfect children and thus an imperfect family. There’s frustration, tension, and anxiety that run alongside God’s grace and peace. There’s growing pains, expanding schedules, and unexpected distress wrapped in Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness. There are words unspoken, spoken wisely, and some we wish we could take back, all enveloped in the Spirits’ wisdom and strength. Families are not perfect, but they are amazing.
The amazing part is that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are present in the middle of our mess. The Triune Godhead doesn’t leave us when the going gets rough or even when it looks like we have it altogether (looks are deceiving). We receive grace, peace, mercy, forgiveness, wisdom, and strength regardless of our current situation. It’s the hessed (steadfast love) of the Old Testament and the agape (self-gifting love) of the Gospels. It’s what turns an imperfect and messy family life into… well… an amazing one.
Our readings today are all over family life, since we just celebrated Jesus’ entry into the world which moved Mary and Joseph from the ‘couple’ realm into the ‘family’ world. Jospeh, no doubt, has memorized Sirach’s words of wisdom. He knew that a father needs honor and obedience from his children, that a mother has authority over children, and that prayer draws them all together as one. This standard was set by the prophets precisely so that Jesus can bring it to life. Jesus is keenly interested in the flourishing of families; his first miracle was at a wedding. He knew that families weren’t perfect, not even his own: Initially, Joseph wanted to end the engagement. Later, Mary spent a good number of years on her own as a single mother. And today’s Gospel recounts the story of Mary and Joseph losing the Son of God for five entire days. On top of that add giving birth without friends or family nearby, a flight into a foreign country where they don’t speak the language, and the eventual rejection of Jesus in his hometown. Messy.
Yet the Church in her wisdom chooses to honor Joseph, Mary, and Jesus as the model for holy families. Why is that? I think that the key is in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Despite the world around them, the Holy Family wrapped themselves in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, peace, and gratitude. They trusted in Love Incarnate.
#imperfectlyamazing