In Hawaii we have a beautiful word, “hānai,” to mean someone considered family to us by taking on the responsibility to love, love, and care for them as a part of our family, beyond legal or blood bonds. This is the crux of the fourth movement of The Service Practice as acts of service best done up-close.
It is said in Romans: 14-16 that God adopted us as His own children. We have been adopted into the family of God, what the Hawaiians called “hānaiʻd” into the family of God. In the same way, as Christ followers who strive to be like Jesus, when we serve others with Christʻs love, the best way to express this love is up-close by caring for people as a hānaiʻd brother or sister, as family.
When Jesus shared the parable of the rich man and poor man Lazarus, one of the takeaways can be found in verse 28 when the rich man pleads for his five brothers to be saved from judgement. If the rich man had been defining “brother” more broadly to include hānaing Lazarus, i.e., the rich manʻs 6th brother not of blood, then his heart would reflect the transformative love of Jesus in his life and avoid the anguish of judgement.
Are there people in your life who rather than to treat as a “project of pity,” we can treat as a hānaiʻd brother or sister? How much more impactful will a heart of service be with this mindset?