Passing the torch to the next generation is important when you’ve got kids involved.
My adorable grandchildren are here for a visit and while it’s certainly a privilege to have them, it’s also sobering me during a curious time in my life.
I’m teaching in the book of Psalms this quarter and I’ve noticed how often generations, descendants, and other references to family lines, turn up.
The immediacy of King David’s emotions make it hard to believe he expressed his thoughts to God 3,000 years ago.
And yet Psalm 90:4 tells us “A thousand years in your [God’s] sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.”
The sweep of time to God is a blink of an eye, while my personal eyes tremble at the enormity of the universe.
The adorable grandchildren love the 120-year-old reed pump organ in our living room and today it, too, reminded me poignantly of the span of time.
My great-great-grandmother gave the organ to my grandmother in 1914.
My grandmother gave the organ to me.
Today as I pointed out the two women in the photo above the organ, I realized my granddaughter was pushing the keys.
The stretch of time from a blond blue-eyed Danish woman born in 1848 to a blond blue-eyed American girl born a year ago today, felt very short.
Eternity
The Psalms tell us that eternity awaits those who believe, those who have faith in God, those who accept Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as the cornerstone of truth.
Jesus tells us in John 14 that He goes ahead of us to heaven where there is room for all who believe in Him, “and if it were not so, I would have told you so.”
I cling to those verses when my life seems so flimsy and fleeting.
I’m not sure I’ll ever see my granddaughter’s daughter and certainly not her granddaughter, but the cycle of life will push forward in this generation and the one to come.
Two generations
As I rocked her this morning, I prayed that her life would be full of trust and faith in the One who has loved her from before the dawn of time.
It’s the only really valuable thing I can give her.
Other than an old organ and my love.
Another lovely post, Michelle! Like you, I’m blessed to own furniture and artifacts that belonged to my ancestors and I find it comforting to be surrounded by the happy memories they evoke.
I hope the memories I’m making with my grandchildren will be as meaningful to them as my own childhood memories are. I hope they’ll remember me with the fondness I have for my own grandmothers.