Our Heritage

"Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart. I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statues always, even unto the end." (Psalm 119:111-112)

I'm feeling melancholy today. Another of our little birdies is about to fly out of the nest. It makes me sad for all the years I missed with my nephew and my nieces. It is hard to comprehend how what starts out as one unit can fragment through the passage of time, yet still have one heart. There are so many moments I have missed, but I still feel like they are my babies too.

Looking into all of the faces of the children in our family it is so painfully obvious that time marches on. When I think of Jacob, a big grown man with a wife and a business of his own, and my sweet D'Ann about to embark on her own happily ever after it makes me long to hold on to what time I have left with the rest, especially since all these weddings of late have my own dumplin' and her fellow talking about just how their own *big day* will play out.

You see, almost 48 years ago two people vowed their own lives to each other, for better or worse, through sickness and in health, till death comes to part them. And because of that love three new lives came into existence. Now that number has multiplied it will continue to do so.

And like a grand symphony God has orchestrated each note of our lives, each crescendo and decrescendo, each change in tempo, He has become our conductor.

Someday my own children will be in this place in life, thinking back over the years, the highs and the lows, remembering.

I have heard so many people say things like "My Grandmother loved the Lord" or "My Grandfather knew his Bible." It almost seems like a whole generation was skipped because I don't ever really hear people from my generation speak of their own parents in such manner.

And I read in Psalms 78:5-9 "For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God."

I am so thankful that my parents have both been baptized in the Name of Jesus, that Name above all names, the ONLY Name by which we MUST be saved, but it was their children who led them there.

My prayer is that someday when our children relate about the character of my brother, my sister and myself they will say, "My Daddy loved God with everything he was," " I can't count the times I have heard my Mama cry out in prayer before the Lord," "She had the heart of a servant."

I don't have a heritage of being raised in the church, but I have a heritage of the Word. And that heritage is rich and deep. It flows through my blood, fattens my marrow and strengthens my spirit. Every beat of my heart sounds out a testimony for my God, the One who loved me enough to give His very life for me, a child that was not even in existence yet, but still He knew me.

And someday, somewhere down the line that my husband and I have begun (if the Lord tarries), there will be a child, praying at an altar, my heritage.