Yesterday, I Visited Family

I looked up "family". According to Merriam-Webster, here's what it means. Notice that, while the variety of type is rivaled only by the nuances of each one, a single aspect remains unchanged: familiarity. Intimacy. Likeness between that makes the units cease to function as singles and more contentedly function as a whole.

Yesterday, I visited family.

Craig and I attended Peters Creek Christian Church for 5.5 years. It took us four months after moving to Alaska to find it. We lived in Eagle River (about 25 minutes outside Anchorage) and resorted to trying "town" when we couldn't find a church more local. But the one we found was south-side with a lengthy commute: when we expressed our hesitations to the pastor, he recommended Peters Creek.

I called the church and spoke with its secretary, Marita. What I thought would be a one minute chat to discover service times and location became nearly two hours of shared stories and connection. So we gave it a try.

Our first Sunday there, Marita and her husband, Scott, invited us to lunch after service. The teaching was good, the people were nice, and the commute was a mere 12 minutes or so. But what brought us back seven days later was not the teaching. Or the nice people. Or the brief commute. It was that lunch: that personal touch that said, "You matter. Do you know you matter? Do you believe you are not expendable?"

Years later, we're still blessed by great friendship with Scott & Marita but, more than that, we've been blessed by family...by knowing value is about what matters, not about a five-letter catch word to falsely comfort when we've no more energy to love.

Yesterday, I walked into a church and watched faces light up upon spying me - and I could feel mine light for them in return. They did not hug me: they wrapped their arms around me and squeezed the very air out of me. THAT is a hug.

They did not ask me how I was: they looked me in the eye and said, "Is Craig still healthy?" and "How tall is Grace now?" and "Does Elijah still look JUST like Craig?" THAT is knowing someone. THAT is asking how I am.

They did not ask what I was doing after church: I went to a home-away-from-home that has fed me and loved me and put fire into my belly time and again. THAT is hanging out after church.

This is the Covak's model of family. It's one for which we strive - and sometimes fail. Sometimes, others fail us. Often, we become beleaguered, disenchanted, worn out by the work of wanting - not what we believe could be true, but what we know is true.

But, yesterday, Peters Creek reminded me of how important family is...reminded me in a way that, lately, I've needed the most. And I am re-inspired.

Family is commonality. But it's more than that.

It's love.
It's value.
It's comfort.
And it is, most assuredly, legacy.

And, yesterday, I visited family.