All the Families of the Earth

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;

all things were created by him and for him.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

And he is the head of the body, the church;

he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead,

so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

and through him to reconcile to himself all things,

whether things on earth or things in heaven,

by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1: 15-20).

This morning, for some reason, I began thinking about my father's family and my mother's family.  The two cultures seem to be almost polar opposites, and yet, in me, they "hold together."  I cannot let either one of them "go," so to speak, or deny that I am a product of either line.

My father's family came to America from Sweden and Germany.  They were a breed of delicate and sensitive scholars and thinkers, deeply immersed and wedded to Old German Catholicism.  They did not question their faith, but adhered to it with every fiber of their being.  They were quietly but fiercely loyal to one another and to the families they generated, to the point of laying down their lives for their families.  My father, who loved school, dropped out at age 14 when his mother died so that he could stay home and care for his five younger siblings, one just an infant.  Had he not done so, his older sister, 16, who had just joined the convent, would have had to return home.  He never got the opportunity to return to school.  The Kuehnes suffered whatever life brought them in silence, prayed deeply, and never wavered, even in thought, from what the church taught.

My mother's family were Scotch-Irish, descendents from America's hardy pioneer stock.  They were Baptist by faith, but never took themselves or anyone else too seriously.  They weathered difficult times and kept going, always with a touch of laughter and a twinkle in their eyes.  The family joke was that one of their ancesters had sold what is today downtown Cincinatti for a mule because it was getting 'too crowded' in that area.  My mother's sisters were horrified when she married a Catholic, a heretic and a papist, an idol-worshipper (statues in the church).  They were even more convinced of her back-sliding when she converted to Catholicism, but they never let their opinions interfere with their love and laughter in one another's presence.  My aunt faithfully saw that we went to the Catholic church every Sunday the summer we spent with her on the farm.  Maybe she had to skip going to her own church that Summer; I never thought to ask her.  They, too, were staunch believers -- but they also believed in laughter, good food, and warm hospitality.

In me, both sides of the family are united; I fully embrace both strains of my inheritance and rejoice fully in what both sides have brought to my life.  I could not deny anyone on either side of the family because I know them and love them dearly.  Somehow, their beliefs and the ways they lived out those beliefs are not nearly as important to me as the strong cords of love that bind us together.

In the same way, Jesus, as the "First-born" of all creation, holds together all the families of the earth.  He knows and loves each one, not denying any of them, despite differences in culture, upbringing, and belief.

He was born in Israel, the meeting-point of three continentents -- Asia, Europe, and Africa --the cross-roads of the known world.  Medieval scholars called Israel "the naval of the earth."

He was Jewish, born into a Greek culture, inheritor of Oriental wisdom, crucified by the Roman world.  In Him, God has reconciled all of creation to Himself in love.  Nothing is alien to him; he embraces all.  The only ones He denies are those who deny Him, who refuse to be drawn by His Spirit.  Son of God, Son of Man:  in Him all things are united under God.