Family of God

As christians we often refer to being like a family- but what does that even mean?
What did family mean when the bible was written?
Do don't think many of us (or me) fully understand what this means.


All these efforts and defenses over defending the tradional family model in society- almost seems to me to be stubbornly holding on to an ideal which has no biblical relivance. (not having a go at the ideal of marriage) But the whole couple and kids in one house as a family and thats it really doesn't seem very biblical to me- perhaph that comes from my experiences of family, which is very inclosed with the majority of extended family overseas and not much neighbourly interaction with numerouse wars occuring at different times.

This could just be me dreaming, but I think biblical family is more inclusive and extended, where there is much more interaction between and within communities. While we spend so much time perfecting our little families and homes which we come back to, to escape our 'hard lives' and occationally invite others to enter our 'world'- we're missing out on what family truely means. I think people living in a slum have a greater understanding of family than we ever will. when your forced to live with people, unrelated, annoying, but having to rely and living through and sharing the same situations and looking out for each other whether your blood related or not- thats family.

Any thoughts?