On family

Here in Nepal everyone is related to you. You are not greeted by your name alone but also by a person's relationship to you. You are called sister, brother, uncle, auntie, mother or father. To our young neighbors and the kids that I live with, I am Claire Didi ("older sister"). I call the taxi driver and the store owner, Daai ("older brother").

Are our relationships different when we look at everyone as family?

The other day as I went for a walk with one of my friends, I passed an older lady who was sitting on the sidewalk and asking for money. I said, "I don't have any money to give you, Amma ("mother"). It was cold out and she had clearly slept there the night before.

Then I thought of my own mother. I would never pass my mother sitting on the side of the road and not help her. I would do everything that I could to get her what she needs. Yet, when this woman who I call "Mother" asks me to help, I find myself frozen and saying I can't give her anything.

"When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, 'Woman, here is your son,' and to the disciple, 'Here is your mother.' From that time on, this disciple took her into his home (John 19:26-27."