Roots…

 Roots…

One of my cousins just sent me a video about exploring old homestead ruins from where our grandparents settled in the 1920’s.   There were some foundations of homesteads of former settlers from another era.  Bits and pieces of oak logs, rocks in rows or stacks from former foundations…pottery shards here and there…

As a small child, I remember some standing cabins we explored in the same area…scavenging through the old bottles and cans, even an old wood-burning kitchen stove filled with a pack rat’s home…

A homemade brick kiln…

Times gone by…

My cousin had taken some former neighbors, now in their late eighties, well known artists, to wonder over the meadows where grains had been coaxed out of the rocky soil, cows/pigs/chickens had once ranged…families long forgotten or moved on from the foothills of the towering Sierras near the giant redwood forests of central California…reminiscing of places and people they had known as youngsters…

He has written a book about the history of the area…filled with facts, humor, pictures of area…but is always looking for more info…meeting and finding more people from our heritage…

My own memories have taken different paths…not the facts and figures of townships and ranges, but the games, foods, family times we spent…recently, one of my children asked me to resurrect a game started in the lean times of newly married couples (my parents and their siblings)…we played it wherever we were able to get together for the holidays…it continued through the beginnings on my marriage…we played it again when my children were newly married…now to continue with grandchildren in college…

Identical closed boxes filled with groceries…the object is to guess what might be in the boxes…there were usually 20 items…some everyday items and some extra treats…whichever family who guessed the most items correctly got a jar of jam, the loser got an onion…but all got to keep their boxes…I think is was my grandmother’s way of fun giving of normal stuff and help with groceries …so now we are down to the fourth generation with a simple gift…

I make persimmon pudding from my grandmother’s recipe…it is drowned in lemon sauce which makes the dessert even more delectable…both fruits from the fall bounty of orchards nearby…

All this to say, we can hand down memories from generation to generation…we can be enriched by our spiritual heritage as well…their faith, their love, their stories…their steadfastness …

Or if our heritage is wrought with dysfunction…we have the choice to break from the bad and start a new cycle…not be hounded by broken relationships or people…but growing in grace, faithfulness…giving to future generations good foundations to build upon…good memories…relationships…

Reading through Genesis, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and further, there are some repeats of bad decisions and good ones as well…God’s continued patience and promises from which we reap still today…by example and blessing… that generation to generation…

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 

I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 

And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” 

Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 12:2,13:16,15:5-6 

Thank YOU….