The second thing that Ian does is he embraces Toula. More than a physical embrace, he embraces her fully for who she is. He wholeheartedly embraces her family, her culture, and her language. This is also something that Toula attempts to shrink away from at first. When he asks her about her family she skirts the question. When he offers to take her to a Greek restaurant, she seems to almost squirm as she searches for a way out of explaining why she does not want to go there.
Finally, she erupts with the most unpleasant description of her family she can muster. She describes the way her uncles fight over the lamb brain at Christmas, and how her aunt chases her around with the lamb’s eyeball on a fork trying to get her to eat it because it will make her smart, and tells him she has 27 first cousins alone. She then gives Ian an emotional push-off by telling him that no one in her family has ever even dated a non-Greek and that she just doesn’t see how this relationship could possibly work out.
Do you ever do that? Push someone away before they have the chance to push you away? We’ve probably all done it. All of us except Jesus, that is.
Even though he was scorned and rejected by man, he never rejected anyone. His gospel is for all people of all nations:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek,
slave nor free, male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:28
“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude
that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,
standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.”
Revelation 7:9
Not only does Jesus embrace your culture, your language, and your whole tribe (no matter how ‘unique’ they are), but also he makes you part of His family as well.
Scripture talks about how we are adopted into the family of God, we in Christ are His children and co-heirs with Jesus. Jesus himself said:
“Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Mark 3:35
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