“If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?”
Lately, I’ve become enamored with learning about my family history. I joined an online ancestry service and plunged in piecing together the puzzle of names and dates. You see, I don’t know the names of my ancestors earlier than my great-grandparents. My family’s origins are a mystery to me, and, in addition to solving the mystery for myself, I feel I owe it to my son, to pass down “the story” of where and who we came from. One man has traced the Ezell family in the states back to a French Huguenot in the 1600s. Maybe we’ll discover something to be proud of; or maybe we’ll discover “skeletons” that we aren’t. That’s the risk. But it’s more than identity that I’m after . . . it’s memory. I heard Fred Craddock once say something like, “If you don’t remember what happened before you were born, then you’re a spiritual orphan.” He means, I think, that if we are ignorant of our spiritual origin and of the people who make up our spiritual line, then we are cut off – spiritually speaking. That’s why, we observe the season of Lent and plunge into the puzzle of names and stories of Jesus’ family – our spiritual ancestors – not of “flesh and blood,” but those who do the will of God (Mark 3). Ultimately, we want to know who we are and what difference it makes to be of Christ. Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter services are about memory. We need to hear these stories about our “ancestor,” because, who knows? By waking up at a “different time, in a different place,” we may wake us as different people!
Happy Easter!
Pastor Leonard
