Matthew 12:50 — For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

When I was very young I had the idealized view of family that I guess many children do … Mum, Dad, 2 or 3 kids, car, nice house, grandparents … you get the picture.
As I got into my teen years, and Dad had left us, and Mum and 4 kids were having a rough time in places that weren’t very nice, and there was no car (and not much else in the way of so many things that were taken for granted by a lot of my peers) I have to admit that I felt like I was missing out — but I still cherished the ideal.
I got married to a nice girl, and we started work on building the dream. Pity nobody ever really gave me much of an idea of how to be married, or manage my money, or any of those other things that might have helped. My parents were missing or dead and hers were not my favorite people …13 years later we got divorced … and I still really thought I knew what family should look like.
Nearly 30 years later I’ve come to realize that successful families come in a lot of shapes and sizes, and any particular expectations might not make sense.
So what? So how about Jesus’s family? Did the Son of God have a perfect family? I’m not sure …
How come He was born in a stable? Joseph and Mary were desperately poor. Seems like there might not have been a lot of family support?
Then there’s the question of what happened to Joseph? By the time Jesus starts His ministry, when it comes to the wedding at Cana, it seems fairly clear that Mary is running the family. Joseph has disappeared from the record …
What about Jesus’s brothers and sisters? The verse at the top of this devotion is the punch line from a shocking little incident. Here’s the full story:

While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

Now I’ve heard plenty of preachers “explain” this text by saying that Jesus was prioritizing spiritual relationships, and focusing on His Father in Heaven — but that’s prettying up a harsh truth. William Barclay gets it right “It was one of the great human tragedies of Jesus’ life that, during his lifetime, his nearest and dearest never understood him.”
Jesus didn’t have a perfect family life. That hardly stopped Him did it? Of course, His family did eventually prove to have some wonderful people in it!
So what’s the Christmas point? If you don’t have what you think of as a perfect family, and you’re feeling a bit depressed — think of the special Christmas family, and cheer up!