As the family of God, we must preserve and reflect His image as seen in the human family that He created and ordained on earth. We cannot dismantle earthly family and then say we are family. By reflecting Him in His earthly family within the small group we preserve the heart of who He is. When God created the family He wanted an expression of Himself. He wanted His image to be reproduced in unity and harmony. God Himself is community (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) relationally communing and flowing together. He wanted a reflection of Himself on earth and had Adam and Eve not sinned, their family would have been the community where God would have been at home.
When God set His people, Israel, in order, he placed each child within a family, each family within a tribe and each tribe within the nation. No generation was excluded, no child left out, no older person put aside. Within each tribe were the components of family: they were community. God is bringing that same order back to His people. The child within the family, the lonely in families, the family within the small group and the small group within the congregation. As we allow Him to recreate that image in the small group, as we receive by faith the gift of community among us, we will experience healing and once again live in the environment He created for us to flourish.
In this way, the Father is preparing the bride for His Son. A bride that reflects His image, a people prepared. He created us perfectly, set us in families that would be a tangible expression of who He is. Families who, together, would be His bride. Families, individuals of every generation, together in community as the family of God taking the Light of the gospel into the darkest places and embracing the hurting until they find healing in the arms of His people as embraced in the family of God.