Sometimes
it is important to know your family tree. With some diseases that are passed
down through the generations, it can be good to know if they have passed
something to you. Of course it would be better if there was something you could
do to prevent the disease taking over your life even though you they passed it
along to you. It is not so nice when there is nothing you can do to change the
course of the disease. It might be better not to know.
With
the push in recent years for genetic testing, there are ups and downs to the
information gained from the testing. So much is still not known about genetic
diseases. This is because diseases often show up in multiple places in our DNA,
not just in one slice, one easy fingerprint. And because it is so complicated,
and we have such limited information about the disease signatures in the DNA,
the results are so often inconclusive and incomplete.
People
can spend years doing research to find out about their ancestors. They can
search official records, births, deaths, marriages. There might be some immigration
documentation. There might be an old Family Bible with copious notes in the
front. My family can be traced back to Wales in the 1100’s. But they are just
names on a piece of paper. Even if I know little bits about what happened in
their lives, I know so little.
So
as our text tells us about our spiritual lineage, we can know something about
where we come from and where we are going. We are God’s children. We are
adopted into His family. Our old family is very different from our new family.
Our birth family is filled with hatred and destruction. That is because our old
family has a lineage of rebellion and deceit. Members of that family are caught
up in the worst vices known to man. There are few restraints to their behavior.
But
our new family is about restoration and fulfillment. It is about connection and
acceptance. It is filled will love and healing. We can be at home in our new
family, safe and secure. Being a child of God means we share in the inheritance
of the Son, the only natural heir. We get what we don’t deserve. We are
rewarded for His work on the Cross.
And
knowing we are God’s child now gives us perspective. We may still live in a
world filled with our old family, but we are now foreigners. We gave up our inheritance
in that family. We signed over our rights to our portion of that estate. We renounced
our connection and turned our backs. We made a choice and we are sticking with
it.
Are
there remnants of your old family connections that are still active in your new
life? Are there family traits that still show up and tie you to the old crowd?
Do you look more like the old or the new?