Jesus experienced family ties and good-byes. So do we.

According to Mark 3:20-35, Jesus was about to be confronted by his frustrated and conflicted family as crowds gathered around him to hear his stories, behold his miracles, and observe with great interest the conflicts he had with religious leaders from Jerusalem. Conflict. But there were also good, tender, and beautiful joys in Jesus' family. Look at the tenderness at the time of his birth.

Good-byes and ties. All families have stress, as well as happiness, times of anger as well as times of joy, times of agony and times of ecstasy, times of good-bye as well as times when ties bind us together in bonds that seem unbreakable. We can all identify with both the ties and good-byes in Jesus' story, though the reasons for our joys and stre…