Families Divided

 Luke 12:52-53: From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
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How many years have you read these passages of Scripture and wondered what on earth could cause such deep division between members of one's own family?  I can honestly say that I could not wrap my mind around what could cause families to turn against one another with such vehement finality.  Now we live in a time in our own country when we are beginning to see these passages come into fulfillment. This nation experienced excruciatingly painful division once before during the Civil War.  North against South. Brother against brother. Now it appears we may be headed for a different type of "civil war."  Left against Right. Five in one family divided, three against two and two against three.  And it came to me that my own family could suffer this devastation since some of them truly are siding with the Liberal Left.  But I ended up on the telephone with some of them this past week and the Lord allowed me to truly live out Romans 13:8,10:  "Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man {and brother and sister, son and daughter, father and mother] has fulfilled the Torah. Love does no harm to its neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Torah."

My conversation was with my unbelieving son.  We did not speak about the Kavanaugh hearings. We never discussed the tensions and passions blaring over our TV screens and computers.  He told me about his wife flying out west to be with her sister in her last few days of life.  I wrapped him in a mother's love. I spoke gentle, shalom-filled words to ease the pain.  And the more we talked, the more he began to ask questions, lots of questions about his childhood, memories springing up in his now 42-year-old mind, causing my heart to bubble with bits of joy at these recollections we share.

In a week that I thought might rip and sever relationships in my family,  love and healing found a place stronger than division.  The outstanding debt to love one another was paid by finding the touch stones where we were one, in a long-ago simpler time.  I can only pray that as divisions grow deeper, among the members of my own family, LOVE will remain.