Middles can be good or bad - people don't like the middle seat on the airplane, but they love the middle of an oreo. We have stereotypes for the middle child, and many times the middle is overlooked. But in most cases, the middle of something is the key link and without it, the whole of that thing would be compromised! Middles are necessary and blessings in disguise. At times there is more pressure on the middle than on the ends, because it often holds things up or holds them together. And as I have been reflecting lately on the role God has called me to be in the middle of a morreshet, I realize how key this middle role is here as well!
Morreshet is the Hebrew word for spiritual legacy, totally separate from their word for a physical/material inheritance. You can imagine how frequently this term was used as the Jews passed down their spiritual legacy from generation to generation. Unfortunately, we have become numb to the responsibility of passing down the spiritual legacy from one generation to another. We underestimate the importance of shaping future generations spiritually, and we will be held accountable for that one day. Yet passing on a spiritual legacy is hardwired into who we are as people and families, and has been since the beginning of creation.
"Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
My life this month has been a realistic picture of what it means to be the middle generation of passing on a spiritual legacy. I spent a few hours a couple of weeks ago going through some old pictures and mementos of my grandparents. Included in these things were confirmation pictures, prayers, and Bibles. I am blessed to have both of my grandmothers' Bibles, but was captivated by some of the older Bibles I still have. A couple of these Bibles are written in German, and I imagine they accompanied my great-grandparents on their cross-country journey to settle in Colorado. As I look at the tattered pages and faded birth, baptism, marriage, & death records, I am reminded of what Charles Spurgeon said "The Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to the person whose life is not." I can imagine the many nights of hardship during the depression, during the unknowns of traveling across the country by wagon, during the early days of settling on the farm and raising a family...that these Bibles and the God revealed in and through them were the things that sustained my ancestors! I am reminded of their deep faith that called them to help start & build a church here in Loveland that is still standing today. And I am thankful for their faithfulness throughout the years - who knows how much of my life today is a fruit of the prayers they prayed for the future generations of their family.
Yet, I am caught in the middle because there is already another generation of our family, hungry to know the God who created them. I am thankful to live so close to my nieces and nephews, to be able to pray with them and talk with them about God. I love their brutal honesty, and curiosity about God, and their simple faith. And I may never see the fruit of the prayers I pray for them, but I know those prayers don't fall on deaf ears, because God hears each and every one of them, and is faithful to complete the work He has begun in each of them. And as we await the newest baby in our family, I pray that we, as a family, would take seriously and be faithful to the role that God has called us to - to raise this baby to know who God is, what He is like, and that salvation can be found in Him alone. More than learning how to read & write, more than learning how to talk & ride a bicycle, this child needs to learn about the God who created it and who has every day of its life planned out, even though it isn't born yet! May God give us the grace, strength, courage, and wisdom to be faithful to the role He has called us to.
"O God, from my youth you have taught me, and still I proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come." (Psalm 71:17-18)
I have been thinking about it lately, because my new nephew was (finally) born this week, after months of anticipation, and a couple of weeks of impatient waiting! As I have prayed for this little one, I have been overcome by the fact that God has known him from the womb. I love how Psalm 139 reminds us that even before we are born, God has ordained every one of our days! As I have been working on a blanket for my nephew, I was reminded of how the Psalmist continues to talk about the fact that God knit our parts together in our mother's womb. God knows the passions & dreams He will put on my nephews heart; God knows the ways He has wired my new nephew to bring Him glory & tell people about Him!
And I am humbled and amazed by this even more today, as I celebrate my own birthday - that 31 years ago, when I was in my mother's womb and my parents were anticipating the birth of a 7lb baby boy, and out came a 10 lb baby girl, God knew me. He knew the unique ways He would wire me, the ways He would pursue me, the ways He would lead me through trials and hardships in order to refine me and draw me closer to Him. He knew me from the womb, knowing all of the days of my life before one of them came to be!
