The gene pool is a lovely swimming hole for a grandparent. You are a child again in many ways... fun with limited responsibility. This week I have been given glimpses into the eternal life that is passed on from generation to generation. Our oldest daughter and her husband had an oops baby, a girl after three boys, named Maddie. At nearly two, her pictures are eerily reminiscent of her mother’s pictures at that age. She has begun feeling the tags in her clothes, holding onto them as she moves through her day. Her mom felt the tags in her pajamas as she went to sleep at night. Alison, our middle daughter, has my grandmother’s mouth. When you look at a picture of Grandma as a young woman, you can see the likeness. Now Aidan, her oldest son, bears the mark of a great-great-grandmother he never knew. Adam, our son, has two sons and his youngest son seems to have his father’s temperament. When Clancy’s eyes light up and he smiles at me, years fall away and it is Adam smiling at me through the mists of memory.These glimpses of the past paid forward into the future have been a joy and a wonder.
In spite of all we know about the science of life, there is so much more we do not know. It seems to me we are a many layered creation, designed to surprise God perhaps, much as we are surprised by our children and grandchildren. When one takes the long view, the ever changing nature of humankind is a delight and a worry at the same time. My grandparent’s generation faced challenges and changes that shifted the balance of the world as they knew it. And, they changed in response to world wars, industrialization, horses to cars, telephones and televisions. Yet the basics, the essentials of self, are still being transmitted, passed on down to new creations in children they could only imagine.Along with behavior patterns and look a like characteristics, I wonder what else is passed down through the generations.
Traditions help keep the past a part of our present in our family...saying grace at meals, lining upon the stairs to come down for Christmas gifts, going to church, farm time, story telling time, birthday celebrations. Each unit in our family has their own interpretation of traditions, a new creation based on their shared past experiences. One thing I hope never changes... the love that calls us together as family, that binds us together in good times and hard times, the love that is connected to the underground river of love that flows through all creation.
Cynthia Bourgeault describes this love beautifully in “The Wisdom Jesus”. “Even with death waiting in the wings, Jesus will allow no separation between God and humans, no separation between humans and humans, because the sap flowing through everything is love itself. In image after image he tries to impart to the disciples his assurance that they can never be cut off from this love, because their very beings are rooted in it.” The Psalmist sings, “For the Lord is good, his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”
I have been wading hip deep in love all my life, Lord, even when I didn’t know it. Thank you for my gift of life that came through the years of others loving. Thank you for the years of loving yet to come in our family. Most of all, thank you for the Love that does not let me go, the Love that endures through all generations. Amen.
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