Blog Assignment: My Family Culture

For this week’s assignment we are to imagine:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of my country and the emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. My immediate family and I are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. I am told we have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. I’m also told that our host country’s culture is completely different from our own, and that we might have to stay there permanently. I’m further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, I can only take 3 small items with me. I decide to take three items that I hold dear to my heart and that represents my family culture. I decide to take my Bible, family photo albums, and hope chest. I would choose my Bible first and foremost, because it is my rock and guidance to surviving anything. I would take as many of my family photo albums I could as a memorandum of my family and the life we shared prior to the catastrophe. Next, I would take my hope chest. In this chest I have many family heirlooms and things that were given to my husband and I throughout the many years of marriage.

Upon arrival, I was told that I could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items I brought with me, so I now have to ask myself what am I willing to give up? If it were possible I would take some of the heirlooms out of the chest and put in the most important photos, in addition to my Bible. And if this is out of the question, I would take a few photos out of the albums and put them in my Bible. Many would say why your Bible? My response would be: I write many things in my Bible. It would be like a dairy to my girls of their mama’s values, beliefs and strength to carry on. Just like it says in Phillipians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Believing in this scripture would be our strength as a family to carry own regardless of our circumstances. Still having my family would be priceless. Material things are nice, but not necessary for survival.

This exercise really made me think about what’s important and what’s not. I pray for the families that did go through such catastrophic events. Many of them did not even have the choice of choosing what was important to their family’s cultural ties. Truly sad!