USA Today published an interesting article about the new fluidity between friends and family — essentially how friendships have in some cases begun to vie with families for importance in people's lives. They gave several examples of people who will spend the holidays with friends rather than family.
I found it an interesting article since I'm one of those people who relies much more on my friends than on my family. Part of that is because I live away from my family; part of it is because I have a small family (my dad is the only blood relative in my immediate family), and I never lived near my extended family. Part of it, frankly, is because my dad and I do not connect on an emotional level. My friends, on the other hand, have provided the emotional support I need. And so, for me, in a sense, my friends are my family.
Of course, taken to extremes, that can run afoul of the Christian view of the family. A family is not just anyone who wants to make a family. I recognize that my friends are not, technically, family, but I do strive to treat some of them as such.
This reminds me of Dr. Scott Hahn's teaching about covenants in Scripture. He called covenants a "family bond". When you made a covenant with someone, you became part of the same family, and it was not unusual for people to make non-marriage covenants. For example, David and Jonathan made a covenant (1 Sam 18:3, 1 Sam 20:16, 1 Sam 23:18). Of course that was a very different cultural environment — covenants were central to their culture, and were taken very seriously. Today, covenants between people are rare except for marriage. (I wonder if religious profession would count as a covenant?)
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