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receiving the love and forgiveness Christ first gave us. It's the fertile soil for faith formation, vocational growth, and a winsome witness to neighbors and friends. We'll also acknowledge that family isn't just the first place people know love; it's also the first place we experience pain. Family holds both great joy and deep sorrow. Passed down from Adam and Eve's eating of the forbidden fruit, families have inherited neglect and doubt, deception and disobedience, pride and cover-ups, jealousy, and even murder. And yet, God cares so much about families that Jesus entered into the world as part of an imperfect, messy family. Jesus' ancestry through His mother, Mary, and His earthly father, Joseph, includes prostitutes and foreigners, adulterers and alcoholics. In taking on flesh, Jesus experienced firsthand what it means to be part of a family—to be a brother, cousin, nephew. To go to social events together, like weddings, and endure family road trips—even getting separated from His family! He knew the ridicule of siblings and the nagging questions of a mother. He knew the work of taking on the family business. Because Jesus shared our human nature, He under- stands what it is to be a member of a family. In His death and resurrection, He's forged a way for renewed relationships not just within our earthly families but also with our heavenly Father. Where Adam and Eve destroyed God's vision for family, Jesus reclaimed it, giving us His Spirit through Baptism, adopting us into His family, and making us heirs with Him of the heaven- ly throne. 2 You might love your family or hate them, but you liter- ally wouldn't be alive without them. So here's to all the grandmas and grandpas, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, aunties, uncles, and cousins—with all our beau- ty and warts. And here's to seeking to live by Christ's love and grace among those we've been connected to as family. w 1 John Eckrich, Family Wellness: Raising Resilient, Christ-Purposed Children (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2020), 49. 2 See Hebrews 2:14–18. Lutheran Life 3

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