I don't know about you all, but I don't know a whole lot about my lineage. I could tell you the names of my grandparents, and my great grandparents, but even that is something I have to think about and try and remember again. In our American culture, we don't take lineage very seriously and make a big deal about it.
We are all more of a 'here and now' culture.
Let's forget about the past and move forward!
Let's move ahead, and leave slavery, oppression and poverty behind!
Everything our great great grandparents had to overcome is not something we take into daily consideration. Personally, I can't tell you a whole lot about the successes and failures of my grandparents or my great grandparents, and even great-great-great! No way.
I really wish I could!
Unfortunately there are only two incredible stories that were told to me second-hand by my mother, about my great grandmother, my dad's grandma. It is a horrific story, sad. All the makings of an Oscar winning film. And I don't even want to type it out, because it's so horrible, what she had to see, as a child, this one instance. But other than that, I don't know anything else about her, what she did for a living, what other things she overcame.
The Bible is MY personal lineage.
This is something I totally just realized. I'm reading in 2 Kings, during my personal time with God this week. And it's not my first time doing so, but this is the first time I've realized that lineage is crucial. If God had not inspired His chosen people to write and write and re-write down the history of their family, then we would have no Bible to read today! Can you imagine it?!
Is there something I need to write down so that my children and grandchildren and great-great-great grandchildren can find? Is my everyday life so dull, my past so shameful, my present so unmeaningful that I should just forget about it? NO. Maybe we should be concerned that our children know nothing about our lives, really.
I never thought about this before, but I feel this sudden longing to express myself, and tell of my story in any way possible, so that when I am in the dust, and long gone, my life can be an encouragement to my descendants! Thank God for HIS WORD! It not only breathes life into my soul, but it encourages my life.
This time around reading 2 Kings has not been boring at all. I have learned a new appreciation for my lineage. God's people had a great lineage. A lot of it is sooooooooo sad. I made like 3 sighs of horror this morning as I read when Jehu had 70 children of Ahab beheaded. And my heart dropped again, when he killed the people that killed the children as well. And my heart was heavy when Jehu became King and yet he forsake the Lord, even after following God's message through the Prophet to extinguish the line of King Ahab. And there is much more, bad bad things. But this is what happened! This is our family. Broken and bruised. A history with a lot shame, things people want to forget about and never bring up again. But these things and the lessons we learn could save our children. And our grandchildren and someone in our lineage!!
When a lineage is stopped or destroyed in the Bible. It is a curse from God. An evil thing had been done and God was seeking punishment upon that family. I don't want that curse. I want His blessing!
We have a great lineage behind us, in Scripture. How exciting!!
Let us not be ashamed. The great great great grandchildren of Jacqui Melgoza will have something to read about their grandmother.
I don't know how my story will affect their lives, but I do know that my goal is that it all points upwards! To my Father and to His Son, my first loves.
What story are you leaving for your lineage?
Blessings!
-Jacqui
PS...'adopted' children (for those ladies and gentlemen who cannot have children biologically) are part of our eternal/physical/spiritual lineage as well!!! God's Word says so!!!
