White Lines and Legacies

I love to travel and see new places and meet new people! Last week I had the opportunity to do just that. My husband was asked to preach a funeral service of a dear friend up in South Dakota. This beautiful service was held in a small 100 year old country church out in the middle of farm land about fifty miles from any sizable town. The area residents are mostly pure blood Swedes who are just as beautiful as the setting of the church itself. While enjoying the beauty of the people and setting, I was once again reminded of the scope of influence that a single life always has on the people it touches.


Cliches about such influence abound; one being "no man is an island." Cliches aside, it is very true that the life each of us lives makes an impact on those in our scope of influence. While at this funeral, it was amazing to hear family member after family member stand and speak to the impact that this departed lady had on their lives. Around the tables after the funeral, eating a typical Midwestern funeral meal of ham sandwiches, friends and neighbors shared stories of impact as well. The greatest part of the experience was not the number who shared, but the commonality of what they shared. Each person who told a story would always mention this sweet lady's faith in the Lord. This dear saint had spent her life living in obedience and love to a Savior who changed her life. The love that was in her heart for Jesus Christ was shared with everyone that she met.

On the long trip home, rather than counting the white lines like I did when I was a kid, I began to reflect upon my legacy. Realizing each of us leaves a legacy is a very sobering thought. Not sobering in a negative sense, simply in the gravity of the importance of what we pass on to our children and grandchildren through the life that we live. While thinking about this concept, my mind went to the part in the Bible where Moses brings the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel and shares with them what the Lord desires. In the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy we read:


"You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."


This passage is amazing when it comes to the idea of legacy. Our life, whether it be a life of idolatry and sin or of obedience and love, will impact generations in our families. When this passage remarks on the sin of the fathers visiting down the generations, it is reminding us that our sin can create patterns of behavior and sin consequences that our children will carry with them long after we are gone. Scripture assures us that children are not responsible for the sin of their parents nor condemned because of their sin, but they are certainly impacted by it. Scripture promises that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, but this does not negate the effect that sin has on the lives of everyone touched by its ugliness. On the other hand is the great news that the blessing of obedience also has generational impact. The joy and blessing of obedience reigns down on the children and grandchildren of those who are obedient. What a beautiful picture it is when this passages speaks of the overflowing blessing of the beautiful and incomparable mercy that the Lord pours out upon those who in the lineage of the obedient.

It has been said that what parents do in moderation, children will do in excess. Thinking about that, I pray for the grace and strength to walk in obedience to the Lord so that my children and grandchildren will do so as well. What better legacy to leave than one that points others to the love of Jesus and the blessing of walking in step with His Spirit!

Keep Walking, Diane