Family Matters

There’s a saying, “Blood is thicker than water.” In today’s idiom, it’s another way of saying that family relationships are stronger than any others, even though to me, that phrase doesn’t make sense. What’s water got to do with it?

Well, there’s an older meaning, extending the phrase to say, “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."

This blood covenant was made by the two people involved dividing an animal in half and standing together in the blood with their right hands clasped, and swearing a mutual oath binding them to each other. Sometimes, they would each cut their hand before clasping them together, allowing their blood to mingle. In effect, the two participants in the covenant would become "blood brothers," with the resulting union of this blood oath to never be broken.

In other words, "My relationship with those I have joined in blood covenant is supposed to be more valuable than the relationship with a brother with whom I may have shared the water of the womb."

So on one hand you have the idea in our culture today that family ties are stronger than any other ties. But on the other hand, there’s the biblical idea of “a friend that sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).

If you’re lucky, you have some friends that are that close (without requiring the blood covenant ritual!). A friend who is a kindred spirit is a precious thing indeed.

But so is family.

I got to thinking about all this after receiving an email chastising me for not including the locations of everyone in the family when I mention in this blog that our family is scattered “from Florida, to Tennessee, to West Virginia, to Canada.” That by doing so, I was essentially declaring I felt like the people whose locations I didn’t mention weren’t part of my family.

So let me clarify that. When I mention the locations I do, I’m only talking about parents and kids. My dad lives in West Virginia. We have kids in Florida, Tennessee and Canada.

We have a VERY far flung family, both nuclear and extended. And if I were to talk about ALL our family, including brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews, well, I’d have to add a whole lot more states like Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, North Carolina and more!

So forgive me if I’ve offended you by not mentioning your address when I talk about our far flung family. It’s not that I don’t consider the above people important family members, but that’s an awful lot of states to write every time I mention visiting family, and wishing we were closer together.

Just let me stick with parents and kids please.