I like genealogy and family history. I am intrigued by the ads for DNA testing, but will probably never do it. What if I took the test and am not really Italian like my maiden name implies? What if my Irish side is a much smaller proportion than I was led to believe? Would I identify with the largest proportion stated or would I lean toward what I have always thought? While I don’t lose sleep over these questions, I do think a lot about genealogy and family history from God’s viewpoint. God is THE Father and has always worked through generations, beginning with His Son, Jesus.
John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
So if generations are important to God, how are they important to you? How big is your timeline? Let’s work within a scale of 100 years. Do you fall in the middle? The first quarter?
0 years 25 years 50 years 75 years 100 years
Grab a piece of paper and follow along for this exercise. Make yourself a timeline and place a mark where you fall in age. Now go back to the beginning of the timeline. What babies and toddlers are in your life? They may be your own children. They may be your grandchildren or the children that you watch in the nursery. How are you interacting with this vulnerable generation?
Psalm 78:5-7 For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.
Think about school-aged children. How do you interact with this group? Do the children in your small group know that you look to God’s promises to meet your needs? Do you pray with and for them?
Middle and High Schoolers: Do you pray for their obedience? Their coming to a personal faith in Jesus Christ outside their parents? Do you talk to them?
The timeline goes on…
College age, young married, new parents, newly working, those in the middle of life where responsibilities are great, those entering their fifties, those who are empty nesters, those entering retirement, those who are caring for aging parents, those who are caring for adult children and still have young children, those who have lost a spouse, those who need help with daily living…
Our timeline should be completely full with people that we interact with on a regular basis. I honor my mother and the example she set for me. I can look back over the years and see how she has always had a friend in each category across the timeline. Even in her retirement she has a four year-old neighbor who comes over to play dolls and 80 year-old neighbor that comes to play dominos. She never fails to have a friend that she talks to about Jesus.
Psalm 78:4 We will not conceal them (sayings of old) from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.
From the beginning of time God has given His children the responsibility of telling the generations about everything He has done! I may never be able to declare with full knowledge that I am 43% Italian, 7% Polish, 4% German, and 46% Irish. However, I can declare with 100% certainty the wondrous works of the LORD, His strength, and His commands to the generation God has given me.
