Psalm 78:1-4
My friends, I beg you to listen as I teach. I will give instruction and explain the mystery of what happened long ago. These are things we learned from our ancestors, and we will tell them to the next generation. We won't keep secret the glorious deeds and the mighty miracles of the LORD.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
For as long as I can remember, my grandparents have told me about “way back when” – their own history… and that of their ancestors. They have passed on a legacy to me of good and bad times… of heartaches and struggles – and great accomplishments. I know how hard my Grand-dad worked to get a high school diploma, coming to Heber Springs from Wilburn when he was 19 and boarding “in town” – stoking the stove at the high school each night with coal while his classmates slept snugly in warm beds at home, so that he could afford to attend school alongside them. I have his high school diploma, Senior Class photo and other memorabilia from the Class of 1930… framed and hanging on my office wall.
I’ve heard countless stories about how my mother-in-law and her sisters boarded in Iowa City, miles from their country farm, so that they could attend U-High – the high school associated with the University of Iowa – in the early 1940s. She has told me how many of her instructors were authors of the textbooks from which she studied… how she had access to indoor swimming and all of the amenities of the college… and how she and her sisters worked for pennies to buy food to supplement the home-canned goods her mother sent with them every weekend or two when they would return home for a visit. We’ve visited the campus with her and even walked through classrooms where she and her sisters once sat for lectures.
Were it not for the oral histories of our parents and grandparents, teachers and others, we would not know how we got here. We wouldn’t know the hard work and struggles, the heartaches and hardships that were endured to pave the way. We would not know the achievements and accomplishments of those who came before us. And all of this information does matter.
But none of this holds a candle to the legacy of our Heavenly Father and the servants and saints who paved the way for us to be able to worship God as we do today. What if nobody had shared the Good News of Jesus Christ? What if no one took the time to tell children and young people about God and His mighty works? What if the message of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection three days later were never told? What if nobody ever shared how God had worked in their life and blessed them? What if we never did this for anyone else?
Verse 7 of this Psalm says “Never forget the works of God, but keep His commands to the letter.” Don’t keep God a secret! Share His work within you with others. Keep the Spiritual history alive in every sense of the word. Pass along to the next generation the marvelous fame and fortune of God Almighty! Share what He has done – and is doing – in your life with others and be a part of His legacy.
©2011 Debbie Robus
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