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Good morning. “Who is my family?” Jesus asks. He’s addressing a crowd when his mother and brothers arrive, asking to speak with him. Pointing to his disciples, Jesus says, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, is my family.” I’m writing this at home during the school holidays, amidst the mess and chaos that three teenagers and a ten year old have created. The sink is full of their dirty dishes. Laundry sits waiting to be sorted into piles. A collection of white trainers and black hoodies have been carelessly left in the middle of the floor. There’s fighting and bickering, and I want to hold my hands up and shout: “Who is my family?” Family life is a mess – quite literally in my case - and acknowledging that reality goes part way in inoculating ourselves against the disease of perfection. Family life isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be. It might be natural therefore to want to draw a line around who we get to do family with, because if it’s going to be exhausting and difficult and sometimes annoying, we need to have solid and clear reasons for who is family… and who isn’t. But Jesus has a different way of looking at things. To Jesus, family means the replacement of duty, love and obligation founded on biological ties, with simple bonds of humanity. The creation of an extended family of God. Despite this, I can’t help but feel for Jesus’ mother Mary, who carried him, gave birth to him, fed him and raised him, all for him to seemingly snub her when he says, “These are my family,” indicating the people all around him, listening to him teach, rather than her… his flesh and blood kin. But by asking this question, Jesus is encouraging his disciples to think outside the margins of what is usually meant by family. Fostering is one way that this happens. The willing generosity and openness that welcomes children and young people into new homes disrupts traditional notions of family, by expanding the boundaries of belonging. In the household of God, we all belong to each other. That is who family is. Jesus’ earthly ministry was to serve, to heal and to teach. This is a good summary of the work of foster parents. They serve the needs of the children in their care, they heal their hurts, and they teach them the meaning of family. As writer Glennon Doyle has said “There is no such thing as other people’s children.”