Christ My Inheritance And My Legacy

Photo by Angel Luciano on Unsplash

Mother’s Day is this Sunday and many churches will likely acknowledge the important role the various types of moms play in our lives. I became a mother when I was 22. I was unmarried and the pregnancy was not planned. As you might imagine I dreaded telling my family the news. I was particularly afraid of telling my own mother, not because we had a bad relationship, or because I feared her condemnation, but because she herself became a mother at a young age. Though she was married to my father, their marriage lasted only a short time. She knew acutely the difficulties of young parenting in the midst of family brokenness.

No parent wants to watch his or her own child struggle, much less repeat the missteps of previous generations. Worldly wisdom seems to suggest this type of repeating pattern is inevitable. Sayings like, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” and “like father, like son” come to mind. Perhaps to some degree, this is true, after all, we share DNA with our biological parents and the degree of influence our DNA has over our behavior is still largely unknown. The field of epigenetics, along with other aspects of DNA, explores the manner in which a person's life experiences may influence the way his or her genetic coding is expressed. For example, my father was a child during the Great Depression. (Yes, really.) Epigenetics might explore to what degree would his experiences of being a child in Kansas during the scarcity of the 1920s and 30’s impact his DNA. And then how would those genes affected by my father’s experiences express themselves in me and his 3 other children? Would we, as my dad was prone to do, collect bits of string and containers, and small bits of scrap metal? In addition to genetics we also have one of the classic questions of  psychology: Are human beings the product of nature (our genetic inheritance) or nurture (the influence of external factors after conception)? Most practitioners in these fields agree– it’s some combination of all of the above.

So, does this mean we are fated to repeat our family histories? 

Scripture speaks in depth of family lineages and the divine and practical consequences of one generation’s sin being visited upon those who come after. As a person who ministers in inner healing and deliverance, I can testify to the reality of various kinds of bondage wrought through generational sin and curses. But by God's graciousness, the answer to the above question is no! We are not doomed to repeat history. 

Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we have new birth, and therefore new parentage under God the Father. Through Christ, we join the holy family of Heaven and have the opportunity, and the ability to grow in resemblance to our heavenly Father, rather than our earthly relatives. We have agency and authority to reject temptations of the flesh and the freedom to choose holiness, and wholeness in Jesus. These are birthrights of the Kingdom of God that we can only access through Christ. 

Jesus himself says this during the debate with the Pharisees over the credibility of his testimony and the claims he makes about himself. In John 8:34 he says, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (NIV) We hear a related sentiment expressed in John 14:6, when Christ says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (NIV) Isn’t this what we all wanted when we were children? We instinctively looked to our moms and dads to show us which way to go, to teach us the difference between what is true and false, and how best to live our lives. But even with the best intentions, under the best circumstances our parents, and we as parents, make mistakes. Pointing our children to Christ, and committing ourselves to model humility and submission to Jesus in the way that leads to life, is one thing we can do correctly, even if we don’t do it perfectly. We simply make it the central, and most important thing we do and we include our children in the journey.

I count it a blessing that when I revealed my unexpected pregnancy to my mother her response to me was measured and filled with divine grace. Her words also bore the weight of her experiences and her knowledge that everything in my life was about to irrevocably change. She encouraged me to pray and take my relationship with God seriously as I would surely need it. She knew the path before me was riddled with the potential for great pain but she also had the testimony of Christ’s work in her own life. She did not speak fearfully or with anger. She simply said what was true, that everything was different now and the only way forward in peace was through Jesus. I've remembered her words and the seriousness in her voice many times over the years. I’ve passed on the wisdom of her encouragement to my own sons, and to the other young men and women the Lord has brought across my path. 

My greatest object of value is not a thing at all, but the man of Christ who has sustained me from the moment I was born, and will until I draw my last breath. And if I successfully “give him away” to only one of my children, whether they be mine by birth or by spirit, my life will have served a greater purpose than any of the great names associated with human accomplishment. May this be the legacy of all who are called children of God: that of all the many treasures in the world, we choose wisely and give our children Jesus.