I started regularly stealing from my dad when I was 10 years old. I would crawl into his bedroom while he slept and reach into the change bag that he kept in his underwear drawer. I would take a little bit at a time so that he wouldn’t notice and then slink off to Frank’s Pool Hall and deposit my booty in the pin ball machines. My dad worked nights as a bartender, which meant he always had a lot of change and generally slept until later in the morning. The perfect combination for a successful 10-year-old change thief.
My subterfuge lasted a few weeks before he noticed. After asking my mom about it she lined my brothers and I up and asked us. My younger brother shook his head and said that he had no idea what happened to the money. My older brother did the same. I did the same, and mentioned that the neighbor kid had been in and out of the house in the last few weeks. My mom then walked up to me, gave me a big hug and said that she knew that none of her sons would ever do anything like that.
I was mortified. My sense of guilt and shame was palpable. I would have felt better if I had been accused of stealing and was properly punished, but instead I was reminded of my mother’s love and my responsibilities as her son. I didn’t have the courage or character to fess up and come clean. But I did stop stealing.
I knew a man whose family adopted a young teenage girl who grew up in horribly abusive circumstances. At times she would break down in tears at the thought of the horrible way she was treated by her biological family. When this happened her adoptive family members developed a ritual in which she would be taken to the family picture (which included her) and talked through what it meant to be a member of their family. She would verbally affirm the privileges of membership: “I am loved, I am forgiven, I am taken care of, I am listened to, I am understood” etc.
Both of these stories point to the responsibilities and privileges of family membership. As we raise our children we are cognizant of the covert and overt messages regarding what it means to be in our family. We want to communicate unconditional love along with the responsibilities and expectations that come with being respectful family members.
It strikes me that God communicates the same thing to us in Scripture. He adopts us into his family through our faith in Him and then reminds us to act accordingly. The New Testament tells us that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His Son and challenges us to walk continually in the light of this truth.
patrick geracie 