Every family has one. The historian, the person at the family reunion who can tell you what the weather was on the day you were born, whose brother’s cousin’s uncle once got into a terrible scrape with the law or, a complete list of the make, model and year of all the cars their dad owned. My family has one.

Uncle Doug, born in the middle of ten children on my mother’s side of the family, stretching from 1923 to 1945 with only one no longer with us, has this uncanny ability. When more than 160 from the 200-plus members of the McDougall clan gather for their annual reunion, Uncle Doug is often called in to settle any friendly disputes regarding family history.

Maybe Uncle Doug’s love of our family history came from Chapter One, Verse One of Matthew. Matthew goes to great length to chronicle Jesus’ family, all 42 generations, starting with Abraham and ending with Mary and Joseph. (Can you imagine the time and energy that went into assembling this information, and all without Ancestry.com?) Matthew’s efforts were worthwhile, as a family’s history, the good and the sad, is what holds us together and keeps us as one.

Woven into the McDougall tartan are family members who influenced their generation as well as those who came after them. Individuals who were there to lead by example, support the family in the good times and the bad times, who kept alive the memories of family members no longer with us and more importantly, who shared their faith with us and brought us into the church through the sacraments.

But in addition to our earthly families, we are also part of the largest family of all, God’s family. And as it is with our earthly families, we have an active role to play not only to sustain God’s family, but to see it grow in strength and importance. For as Jesus says in Matthew 12:49, "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

As we head into the final week of Advent ready to celebrate the most wondrous event for all families, the birth of a child, and for us the birth of our Savior, let’s be thankful for not only being a part of our earthly family, but also a part of God’s family. And as members of God’s family we need to look at the person in the pew next to us at church, ahead of us at the grocery store checkout line, or shuffling to the homeless shelter, as part of our family, for we – all of us – are children of God. Let us love, respect, obey, and imitate all that is good not only among our earthly families, but among our heavenly family.