Do your part

Reading the whole Bible through means that there are times when you are going to face passages like this in I Chronicles 2:

 14Jesse was the father of Eliab his firstborn; the second son was Abinadab, the third Shimea, 14 the fourth Nethanel, the fifth Raddai, 15 the sixth Ozem and the seventh David. 16 Their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. Zeruiah’s three sons were Abishai, Joab and Asahel. 17 Abigail was the mother of Amasa, whose father was Jether the Ishmaelite.

And the verses before and after this are equally as inspiring.   But there are two takeaways from all this genealogy:

1)  God’s view is the long haul.   We may not see how what we are doing to day might have an effect on the future, but it does.   One of the main reasons that I believe God wanted us to adopt, for example, was for the generations to come.   Most of our children spent time in foster care (2 were from a Guatemalan orphanage but the rest were in foster care for at least a couple years before we adopted them).  We have children whose parents spent time in foster care.   We even have children whose grandparents spent time in foster care.

But guess what?  Our grandchildren are not in foster care.   And based on how well they are all doing right now, their children won’t either.  We broke the generational cycle.   As I read genealogies I am reminded that what we do today doesn’t just impact those around us, but can change the lives of every generation to follow.

2)  God uses both the just and the unjust to fulfill HIs plan.  As you read through genealogies in Scripture, you can see interesting folks who were part of the line of Jesus.   Some interesting characters there include Ruth (remember her — she left all that was comfortable because of loyalty to her mother-in-law and ended up being an ancestor of Jesus).   Rahab is in that line as well but she was a prostitute and the fact that David is part of it all is crazy because he was an adulterer and a murderer.     They each had their part to play in God’s master plan, however, and so do you and so do I.

So today if you are feeling obscure…. or if you are thinking what you do doesn’t matter… remember that time in God’s eyes is different than ours.