Unexpected Arrows

I have one brother and one sister. They're both older than I am (and they ALWAYS will be!). I married and started a family well before my brother did, and to ensure the survival of the family name, my wife and I had five sons. Having accomplished that, I began to think of my brother who had sired no children of his own, and I felt sorry for him.

However, while I was in the process of filling my quiver, my brother did get married to a lovely lady who already had three children of her own. Boom. Instant family. Nevertheless, my brother and his wife have had no children together, nor will they. Like I said, I used to feel sorry for him about this, but not these days. Although I have seen and experienced firsthand the blessing of bringing one's own children into the world, I've witnessed how God blesses in other ways.

Although I may have been given the responsibility of raising five sons in the ways of the Lord, my brother was chosen for a very different and special mission: embrace and love a woman and her children who had been terribly hurt, and become a father and grandfather to a bunch of folks that desperately needed it.

You see, I got married and added my wife and our 5 subsequent children to the family. Hurray! But my brother got married and has, over the last several years, added no fewer than 20 people to our family circle. He is loved by all of them and the Lord has blessed him as (dare I say it!) an honored and respected patriarch.

So here's to my brother, and here's to God our Father who uses each of us in very important and unique ways, and "sets the lonely in families."