God gave me a picture. We have been laughing about it all day. When I was in treatment, they used the example of a baby's mobile to represent the family. When one character moves everyone moves. If one person changes, adjustments have to be made by everyone. My family mobile looks more like a group of parachutists caught in the same tree. I see us hanging there in our harnesses dangling our feet, unsure of what to do next. When I went to treatment and decided to give up alcohol, I faced a lot of unexpected reaction from family and friends. Change is hard. When a person you know changes, you fear you will no longer know them. It's a loss of control. How do I talk to you if I don't know how you will react? What if you decide not to love me?
Of course we are all the center of our own mobile and our family and friends make up the characters that hang around us at varying distances. This includes all of the people in "our circle". I laughed today thinking about how on the average mobile each person would have to be strategically placed to keep first wives from hanging next to second wives. This wouldn't be the case in our family. Our family is a jumbled mess and we all get along well enough. Better than well enough. When I was baptized, my sons father and his wife and their son came. My step-brother and his sister on his mom's side were there. I loved it. In this messed up world of divorce and steps and halves, it's the least we can do. Can't we all just get along?
Recently my step-dad's first wife lost a son. We all supported them, because really, we are all family. When one character on the mobile is weighed down with burden the rest of us naturally lean toward them. When one character dies and is plucked from the mobile, the rest of us have to figure out how to find balance without them. Some families are all tangled up with each other. Some families are all facing away from each other. Some mobiles are very still and others are always bouncing with drama. Sometimes it's only one character who is bouncing and the rest are forced to bounce along and even fantasize about cutting the string on that guy.
I see the umbrella or hood over the mobile as protection from God. While the enemy is busy trying to wind us up and keep us spinning in circles. As I have tried to find recovery from my childhood traumas, my isolation has affected the whole system. As I have grown and changed there was resistance at first, but gradually the mobile has become more still and we are all hanging a little more peaceful. Change can be difficult and scary, but I find comfort in one thing that will never change.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (NIV)
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