A stepmother raised Lincoln, an adoptive family gave Steve Jobs his last name, and grandparents took in Simone Biles. Family is rarely as tidy as we picture it, so who gets to say who your people are?

In this third message, we turn to John 19:25-27, where Jesus spends one of his few remaining breaths placing his mother and the disciple he loved into each other’s care. He calls her woman, not mother, and a household is formed at the foot of the cross that biology did not build.

This message invites you to treat that as your real family tree, one tree with two branches and a nail in each. Learn the names of the people you have sat near for years. Show up at gravesites and not only potlucks. Look after aging parents, notice who is missing, and set the extra place. Calvary defines family, and no one in it has to be alone.