Family Day Feels

 

I'll just say to begin, that I have long thought we needed a stat holiday between Christmas and Easter to help break up the winter.  Well, in Ontario (and also BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick at least), here we are!  And how great is it that things have turned a little milder so that we might dare to venture outside for a bit.

But beyond the seasonal pick me up a holiday Monday affords, what a great idea to have a day set aside to celebrate Family.

There's a caveat, of course.  "Family" can be defined in so many ways, which I think is good and proper.  For some, families of origin hold things that often we do not care to celebrate, but rather have had to overcome.  For others, a sense of blood/DNA connection is lacking due to a wide variety of circumstances, some for which we are responsible, and some for which we are not.

We humans, being the creatures that we are, often find ourselves at odds somehow with our deepest desires to be heard, known and loved in a place of safety and unconditional positive regard.  Relationships are complicated, and, well, it's just hard to get along sometimes.  Unfortunately, some 'differences' end up being alienating, or even of the toxic sort requiring decisive measures if we are to survive.

So yes, "Family" can conjure up less that all the warm feelings we might hope it would.

And.

I have observed in my own life, and in the lives of many I have had the joy to journey with, that we are often gifted with community in ways that become 'Family' far beyond what life might otherwise have tried to rob us of.  It's as if a God of redemptive arch stories knows that we do indeed need to be heard, known and loved, and also to hear, know and love the other.

Psalm 68:6 has this uplifting phrase, "God sets the lonely in families."

Love that.

And so, on this Family Day 2026, that's both the testimony I bear for my own complex and family-rich story, and also my hope for all of you.  And however else you may be marking this mid-winter stat holiday, I trust you will be able to fully embrace, reach out, be welcomed into all that is Family for you.