Last night we MacInnis girls watched Kiera Knightly's Pride and Prejudice again. In itself a diverting experience, but that wasn't what stuck with me. I was really touched by the common thread running through all the cast interviews afterward. (We watch "extra stuff": it's like a right, on par with naming all the cars or writing our weirdnesses on the white board in the kitchen.) The thread was Family. Granted, the little segment was about the parallels between the fictional Bennett family and the family that grew out of the people who portrayed them, but there was a depth to the actors' answer to the interview questions which went beyond good pr responses. Rosamund Pike, who played Jane Bennett, spoke as an only child, suddenly supplied with sisters. Donald Sutherland, playing Mr. Bennett, spoke of falling in love with these five girls who played his daughters, and developing a truly fatherly affection for them. All of them spoke wistfully about wishing it could go on forever because the family dynamic was so bewitching. They worked together, played together, ate together, learned one another and had to get along.
I forget, because I live in a family that has operated like that all my life, that this is not a common experience any more. My family has long lived in a sort of familial-time-warp in which we work together, play together, eat together, learn one another and get along, because the way we have chosen to live leaves us little alternative. With Dad working from home he's here. With Mom being a stay-at-homer, she's here. With us kids being home-schooled, we're here. In consequence we can all tell in a heart-beat when one of us is having a bad day, and can usually determine in the space of another couple of heart-beats exactly why. We have more inside jokes than a theatre troupe or the staff of a summer camp. We know almost everything about each other and still like each other. Our context binds us together, tight as puzzle pieces, and there is a security in that which protects us from every form of rejection known to man. It insulates us. To know and be known, and being known, still loved, is the greatest desire of the human soul. This is what these poor actors discovered on the set of Pride and Prejudice, and which I, as a blessed child of the King, have always known.
Which begs the question, What's to be done? Theatre and cast groupings, summer camp and Bible School, the work place and Starbucks do not solve the problem. Being a child of the Instant Era, I want to provide a solution right this second. But the real answer is a long term one: make families. Get married as soon as possible, have children as soon as possible, raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, taking pains to create an environment in which everyone can be known and still be loved. This is not a hobby, friends. This is not a nice thing to do if we can manage it. It is the highest calling the Lord can call us to: it wins souls for the kingdom, it makes safe the helpless. This is something that is burning in me.
But more exposition is for another day. This does for now.
2 comments:
Amen, and amen. In the midst of a society that has forgotten family, and is consequently reaping the manifold results, it is so good to be reminded of the fact that family is how God set things up to provide for human need--and for the working out of His kingdom. It IS the highest calling--on good days, bad days, avalanche-of-diaper days, two-year-old flower offering days, burned dinner days, sleepless nights, foot-rub-on-the-couch days, glorious walks in northwestern sun days, and all the rest. No, it's not always easy. Sometimes it's overwhelmingly difficult. But the joy of family is worth it all--the joy of obedience and its rewards are worth it all--the joy of seeing the kingdom of God furthered is worth it all.
Amen. Amen. Amen Amen Amen!!! And Amen again. I cannot say "Amen" enough here.
You know how I know everything you just said is absolutely true?.....because I never grew up experiencing what you're talking about. I never knew people lived like the MacInnis family does. And then the multiple times I experienced what you describe, (Theatre in high school, Ecola, my former clique of friends, ACCESS, etc...) my spirit said, "There's something right with this. There's something about a group functioning this way that no one's ever explained to me but that I know is how God originally intended things to be." And I realized it without even being told. That says a lot right there!
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