My Brother and I (Part 1)

I conversed with a friend some time ago and he asked me: Who is your brother? I’m sure he’d expected the look of surprise on my face. Yes, I was surprised. Why would he ask me who my brother was when he already knew my only brother? I dismissed that with a wave of my hand, thinking he was only trying to pull my legs. But he asked again: Who is your brother? This time around, he placed some emphasis on “brother” (as I thought from the way he sounded). Confused as I was, and in an attempt to get back at him, with another joke maybe, I blurted with a shrug and a mixed expression of surprise and confusion, “I don’t know!”

Then my friend spoke:

You call him “brother”, yet he sees you as the enemy

You call him “brother”, but he says evil of every sort about you.

You smile with him and he forces some wry smile to conceal the hatred in his heart.

He hears something bad out there about you who love him as a brother; he comes back, smiles in your face and tells the world what he heard about you.

He sees you in pain, feigns concern, yet refuses to help.

Your brother frowns at every success you achieve, but pretends to be a supporter.

He rains down every word of flattery on you, but in essence, is spitting in your eye.

Yes, he’s your brother, isn’t he?

A brother who sees nothing good in you, but waits for your mistakes.

A brother who makes the loudest noise about every help he gives you.

A brother who stabs you in the back.

I tell you what, my dear friend…

It takes more than blood to define a brother,

For a good friend is better than a bad brother.

By the time my friend finished, I was shivering, with goose bumps all over me. He laughed and said he’d been making futile efforts to understand what it meant to be a brother.

WHO IS YOUR BROTHER?

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, you are our brother and friend. Teach us how to love each other as we ought. Help us to be to others what you have been to us, that our joy may be complete in you.

FOR OUR REFLECTION

Genesis 4:1-16

Genesis 38:6-10

Genesis 37:2-36

Matthew 18:15-18