Translating Your PastChikamu

How do I begin to understand what my family story is telling me?

Rev. Bernard Smith, an American-born seminary professor who has been living in the West African country of Togo for more than two decades, told me that most African cultures have a deep tradition of honoring their elders and teaching their children their oral genealogies. Many African clans have an appointed storyteller charged with passing on the tribe’s history and traditions, including the names of ancestors going back as many as thirty generations. Smith noted, “A few years ago, I admitted to one of my students that I didn’t know the name of my great-grandfather. He looked confused and said, ‘If I didn’t already know your character, I would have called you a liar! I have no idea how someone can live without that knowledge.’”

Genealogical records don’t just play an important role in certain cultures, they play a crucial role throughout the Bible too. There are numerous genealogies listed in the book of Genesis alone (Genesis 4:1–2, 17–22; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1, 32; 11:10; 11:27; 25:12–13; 25:19; 36:1, 9; 37:2). And we see in the New Testament books of Matthew (1:1–17) and Luke (3:23–38) that those genealogical records woven throughout the Old Testament were essential in placing Jesus in the lineage of David, from whom the promised Savior of the world would come.

While the Bible is an inspired, holy revelation about who God is and what God is like, it also reveals the unvarnished truth about who we are. Every facet of our human condition is named and described within its pages and shows us how our just and loving God deals with us. The Bible shows us how God uses imperfect humans to communicate faith from one generation to the next.

Many of us have family histories that include twists, turns, trauma, love, loss, questions, secrets, and a shocking surprise or two. Maybe we come from a long line of dedicated unbelievers disconnected from God. Even so, every family story is a part of God’s grand narrative. Your life writes a new chapter in your family’s story—a story best created in conversation with our past as well as the One who is the author and redeemer of that story. As we seek in God’s company to make meaning of that past, we will find ourselves growing toward spiritual wholeness and maturity, able to pass on the richness and hope of that story to the next generation.

Pray: Dear Jesus, I recognize that my family story is far more than a list of names or a set of DNA results. Show me what it looks like in my life to create meaning from the past and build a legacy of faith, hope, and love for the future.

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