Blood and Water

"Blood is thicker than water. Remember that!"

I heard this every time I came close to straying from my family and their values. This saying bugged me. It told me that family was all I had on this earth. No one else. Everyone would abandon me. Little did I know that I would end up embracing this saying more than anyone, but we'll get to that later.

"Blood is thicker than water" was justified by saying that the family blood you share is much harder to penetrate and break, and also more important than any other kind of friendship. Friends would fail you. Friends would betray you and leave you hanging in the most dire of days. When your friends would make mistakes and show their human sides, they weren't worth keeping.
What about family? Family would always be there for you. Family would never leave you. You weren't allowed to leave your family. I don't know if anyone else grew up with this mentality hammered into their brains or if this was just a particular German/Mennonite thing to do but that's what I lived with every day: the fear of leaving my family.

I remember the first time that I didn't leave in peace. After having been kicked out of the house in Kelowna, I ended up moving to Vancouver, literally overnight. Fear and trembling came over me. How was I going to survive? What was I supposed to do without my family? See, this value had so been ingrained in me that I didn't think I'd be able to survive this world without my family.
Fortunately God came through and through his grace, sustained me.

Because of my family's mentality, I never really had friends growing up. I mean, I would hang out with this girl once a month or so but the rest of my time was spent either alone, with my family, or cousins. At school I was severely bullied up to the point where I wanted to take my own life. Again, God intervened and it is only by his grace that I am sitting here today, writing this.

My first real friend, who would end up going through thick and thin with me, I met when I was 15. She taught me what true loyalty meant. It is because of her that I learned the confidence to make friends. Of course my family didn't approve. They thought she may be a bad influence. Interestingly enough, we still consider each other as close as sister, after all this time.

Only after beginning my own, independent life did I realize the true potential friendships had. Friends truly are the family you choose. They build you up, encourage you, challenge you, tell you when you've messed up but never hold it against you. They forgive you without batting their eyes. They don't bring up past mistakes. They tell you that you have so much potential in this world and they always remind you of your shared, eternal, hope. They are the people who you can truly be yourself around. Sometimes this means having a cooler on the front porch while pondering life's deepest meanings, sometimes this means going gaga over a guy that said you looked cute today, sometimes this means them driving for an hour to your house because you cannot deal with life at the moment, and sometimes this means putting in the effort to maintain a deep friendship despite this world's stupid distance.

So wait, how did I come to actually embrace that saying "Blood is thicker than water"? Well you see, there is actually a larger context to this quote. The full quote says:

The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

See, the word 'blood' in this instance does not refer to blood shared by your family's DNA. The covenant of the blood you've shed or shared with someone (sometimes literally) is stronger than the one I have with someone who I've shared a womb with. This is not to discredit family relationships in the least and I do apologize if it comes across that way. My hope isn't to diminish family relationships but rather to uphold covenants made in this life between friends.

My close friends know virtually everything about my past life. I've never been one to shy away from sharing. They know my ugly sides. And what did they do when they heard them? They embraced me. Not my past, but me. So yes, blood is thicker than water. Today I stand by this.

What is even more amazing however, is the truth that Jesus' blood shed for me is even stronger than any earthly covenant. If everyone in this world should fail me, I know for a fact that he won't. That is one blood covenant that cannot and will not be trumped by anyone or anything.
So remember this:

The blood of God's covenant is thicker than any water offered to you on this earth.

xo