God Is Family

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it'…And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." 1

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." 2

The Family Covenant

The father, rock of faithfulness,
And mother, heart of sacrifice,
Form children in loving kindness --
Their precious souls are without price.

Family is a covenant:
A mirror of the Trinity;
Husband and wife, by sacrament,
With children: one in unity.

We strive to sing one melody:
Each heart contributes its own voice.
Together, there is harmony:
God's will in all becomes our choice.

We face each storm with one resolve,
Though in our selfish ways we tend,
Our unity will not dissolve;
By forgiveness, our hearts will mend.

God's love we live in sacrifice.
Serving each other is our choice.
We offer ourselves without price;
And in this giving, we rejoice.

To our Father, we lift our prayer.
Through His own Son, new life we know.
We are placed in His Mother's care.
In His Spirit, our hearts will glow.

The heart of God is family.
He builds His church with us, His stone.
He mortars us with charity --
And raises us up to His throne.



(c) Paul Buis, 2000

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1. Genesis 1: 26-28,31
2. Ephesians 3:14-19