Family Archives - Pastor Rich Eddy

Suffer the Children

I once heard someone lead a devotion by reading from Luke 18:16, using the King James Bible. He read these familiar words: “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” The person then talked about what that verse meant to him. He said, “Jesus knew that children suffer in lots of ways, from hunger, disease, and mistreatment. He wants us to take care of them so they do not suffer.”

While I admired the man’s love for children, I was just fresh from seminary, and had to stifle the desire to interrupt him to explain that the word “suffer” in the 1611 King James Bible did not mean what it does now: “To feel pain or distress; sustain injury or harm.”* What Jesus was saying to his disciples was to “allow” the children to come to him, reinforced by his very next words, “and forbid them not.” That’s why our modern translation render Jesus’ words as: “Let the children come to me” (Luke 18:16, ESV).

In recent days, however, I have come to believe that the leader of that devotion wasn’t too far from the truth, for it seems that something has gone very wrong in our culture in the ways we value and treat our children. And this is not good. It seems that our society is doing all it can to either harm children, or to prevent their even being born. Consider the following:

1. Fewer marriages. Marriage is the basic unit of the family. It is within the context of marriage that children are produced, nurtured, and raised to adulthood. This was God’s design from the beginning when “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24, quoted by Jesus in Matthew 19:5). Although people do conceive children out of marriage (hence the terms “baby momma” and “baby daddy”), such children are more likely to suffer (current meaning of the word) poverty, abuse, unemployment and prison. The stability of a two-parent household is undeniable, but the rate of such marriages is declining in the US. Genesis 2:18 quotes God as saying, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” And Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.”

2. Pornography. When people find sexual release and satisfaction through images, video, and other means, they are not fulfilling their duty to their spouse, nor producing the children that God gave them those desires to produce. Instead, children are often suffering as the victims of sexual trafficking, often for the production of pornography. . When God made people male and female, he commanded them to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth ” (Genesis 1:28). He designed them to find pleasure and fulfillment in each other, to bond them together even as they produce children in love.

3. Neutered human beings. When our culture celebrates what it calls “gender affirming care,” what it means is, “gender destroying care.” The removal of a person’s sexual organs makes them infertile (obviously), as does the injection of hormones that block the natural development of puberty. When we had our cat neutered we didn’t change him from a male cat to a female cat. He became an “it.” He is still a male, but unable to make new kitties. When we push children to have the same thing done to them, we are not affirming, but neutering them. They are becoming “its.”

4. Same sex attractions and “marriages.” Obviously, the joining of two men or two women will not produce children. Even when such couples want to raise children, they have to turn to the opposite sex to create such babies, either by adoption or artificial insemination. The surge in such “marriages” means fewer children are conceived, and for children raised in such a family, they are more predisposed to look upon their own future partner as being of the same sex as themselves. But this is contrary to God’s design and intent: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

5. Birth Control. I used to think that birth control was fine, as long as the means of such control didn’t destroy a fertilized egg. However, I now see the effect such readily available contraceptives has resulted in significantly lowered birth rates in the countries most able to provide for their children. It also has made “recreational” sex more prevalent by removing one of the consequences of sex. Also, women who use birth control to advance in their careers may end up not having children when they decide to do so.

6. Abortion. This is the big reason our birth rate is down, because children are being killed before they can be born. In 2021, the numbers were 625,978 abortions, which was up 5% from the year before.

7. Attitudes against children. For many young people, children are seen as an inconvenience or an impediment to other goals they have. They think children take too much time, cost too much, or interfere with work, travel, or entertainment goals. Then there are the people who say “I don’t want to bring children into the world when we all are going to die from (name your poison).” And then there are those who see humans as a plague on the earth, and therefore they want to reduce the population either totally, or to a more “sustainable” level.

The result of all these factors is that the birth rate in the US is 1.64 children births per woman, below the rate of 2.1 to maintain our population. Other countries are facing even worse declines. In South Korea, the rate is only 0.76, causing their President to form a Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter Planning tasked with the handling the “national emergency.” The moves are part of Seoul’s intensified efforts to reverse the trend: including cash subsidies, infertility treatment, and childcare services.

Today, the assault against having children is happening in many ways. All in defiance of God’s command to multiply. According to God’s word, children are a blessing. When the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Old Testament were childless, they conceived and birthed children, often miraculously, as blessing from God. The list is long: Abraham, Sarah, Manoah, Hannah, and a Shunammite woman. In the New Testament, we read of Elizabeth and Zechariah who gave birth to John the Baptist, and of course to Mary, the mother of our Lord. That’s one birth we are all blessed with!

In Psalm 127:3-5 it says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” (** Please see the important footnote below.)

Children are a blessing. But there are forces working against God’s plan to bless us with children made in his image. What are those forces? Where do they come from, and what do we do about them? I will address these questions in the next blog. See you there!

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Genesis 1:26-28, Psalm 127:3-5.

*The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition, 2011

**Important Note for Childless Couples: I want to express clearly that it is neither my belief nor my intent to criticize those husbands and wives that have been unable to have children, in spite of their desire to do so. They do not despise God’s commandment to “be fruitful and multiply,” they endorse it. But for some reason, they have been unable to reproduce. Often this has caused disappointment and deep hurts. Being one of those couples ourselves, my wife and I share those couples’ pain and pray, both for their comfort by the Holy Spirit, and for God to fulfill their lives in other ways: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

For Such a Time As This

Have you ever wished you could have lived at some time in the past, when things seemed more peaceful, with clear values and a clean environment? Before Covid and crime and the threats of war loomed over your world? When spouses loved each other and children listened to their parents?

Maybe you watched an historical drama and thought, “I wish I could have lived back then . . .” I know that I’ve done that: I saw some movie and then fantasized being in the story. Maybe it was about Robin Hood, and I saw myself wining the archery contest(by splitting an arrow in the bulls-eye, of course), and championing the oppressed peasantry. But then I thought, I’m not that good an archer, and the times were rough, total obedience to the king was the law . . . and then there was that Black Death thing. Okay, so not the Middle Ages.

But what about the Westerns I watched that had me imagining I was a dashing young lieutenant in the US Cavalry? The bugles blow and the men line up at my command as I save the wagon train from attack! Of course, half my troop would have died of diseases which today are rare. The food was hard-tack biscuits which broke your teeth, dental care was brutal, you had to ride for days in the saddle, and milk shakes had not been invented. So, maybe not that era.

Or instead, how about a hundred years ago, when my grandparents were born? That was a better time than now, certainly, if you ignore the sod house with no running water or electricity where my grandfather was raised, or the Spanish Influenza, or World War I or the Great Depression.

Or the Age of Exploration, when I could have died with Magellan on his voyage, or the Reformation when I could have had the Plague before I was executed by the Inquisition, or the days of the early Church when I could have been thrown to the lions for the crowds’ entertainment. And no milk shakes then, either.

You get my point: there is no time in history better than now, no matter how we idealize the good things about it. For there were good things, and bad things then, just as there are now. True, I’m glad I went through school when I did, in the 1950s and 60s, when we knew our genders and mostly listened to our teachers . . . much better, if you don’t count our hiding under our desks during air raid and tornado drills.

It is important for us to accept that we live now, at this time full of its challenges and dangers, just as people throughout history have faced their own problems. We don’t want to miss out on the good things around us, even as we lament the things that are wrong. No matter what we think of these times, now is the time when we have to live.

This is important for another reason, beyond finding contentment in life.

This past week I wrote a short Bible study on the book of Esther for our church’s national women’s group. In that book is the story of a young and beautiful Jewish woman named Esther, who saved her people from a planned genocide by appealing to her husband, King Xerxes. But before she made the appeal, her cousin, Mordecai, pleaded for Esther to do so. What he said to her was the memorable challenge: “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

Apparently, those days had their problems, too! But Mordecai showed Esther that the very reason Esther lived when she did, and had married the king, was to save her people. If she had lived at any other time or place, she could not have done what she did, and God’s purpose for her would have gone unfulfilled.

Mordecai’s words to Esther become God’s challenge for us. Could it be, that we were born into the world, and live when we do, because God has a plan he wants us to fulfill right here and right now? Could it be that we have come into the world “for such a time as this?” That just as God sent his Son into the world “when the fullness of time had come,” (Galatians 4:4), he may have determined that each of us be born in our own fullness of time? For as God is above even time, and knows the end of a thing from its beginning, (Isaiah 46:10), he knows what he has prepared us to do. As the Apostle Paul put it in Ephesians 2, God “created us in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he prepared ahead of time for us to do.”

When we understand that God created us to live when and where we do, we certainly can receive peace in the knowledge. But we also are challenged to ask what that purpose is, and how we can fulfill it. What is it about our time and place, and our abilities and resources, that enable us to influence the world around us for God’s glory and the benefit of everyone else forced to live in our day?

Fictional stories are replete (a word from another era!) with people who have special abilities which save the day: superheroes with secret powers that stop the villains; a retired gunfighter who saves the town from a hired gun; a meek kid who out kung-fu’s the town bullies; or the janitor who changes the formula on the chalk board to solve some professor’s impossible equation. We enjoy such fiction, but we live in a non-fiction world. And we may find that what we can do, though not as spectacular as those fantasies, is just as important and amazing.

So, what can we do that may help fulfill the purpose for our living now, “for a time such as this?”

Prayerfully search your heart. As you pray to know God’s purpose for your life, you may find certain things that inspire you or trouble you. It could be a cause or an injustice. It could be persecution of fellow Christians or blatant public sins. It could be heartbreaking situations that move you to help the people who are suffering. You may be the person God has sent to alleviate the hurts or confront the sins. Such responses may be difficult and even dangerous, but who else will step in except those whose spirits are troubled and yearn for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven?
Pray for the people and situations. Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded with him for them to be spared. God’s answer was that for but a few righteous people, he would relent and spare the cities. Perhaps, God has judgments waiting even now, and has sent you to be one of the righteous people to allow others the chance to repent and live. Likewise, when the Apostle Peter was unjustly jailed for preaching the Gospel, the believers gathered to pray for him – and God sent an angel to free him from his imprisonment. James 5:16 tells us, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power.” Maybe God has you living now to provide the one prayer he desires for working out his will.
Use your particular gifts and abilities. Can you sing or write music? Write a hymn or praise song that will honor God and strengthen faith. Can you write? How about a book about heroes of the faith, or novels with noble themes, or even, dare I say it, blogs? Are you good with children? Teach Sunday school or VBS, or babysit, providing Christian nurture (maybe to someone who will one day become a great evangelist). Whatever you can do, or enjoy doing, can bless others and glorify God, as Jesus himself said: “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
Honor Christ by your relationships. How do you treat people? Do you care about people, and show your love for them? A stable marriage, or children who are taught respect while being nurtured, or friendships that cross social divides of race, languages, or politics, all testify to the love of Christ. Honesty, helpfulness, generosity, and encouragement testify to the one who saved you, and may be the witness that someone needs for their eternal salvation. You may live here and now to be God’s means to reach them.
Speaking of generosity. God has blessed you with the “Three t’s” – time, talent, and treasure. You can use those blessings to help others and advance Christ’s Church. You can volunteer, whether informally on your own when you see a need, or in your church. You can share your skills and abilities as mentioned above. You can give of your material and financial blessings to help others and spread the Gospel through local and foreign ministries. God has blessed you by the most generous gift of all: his Son. The least you and I can do is spread some of those blessings around.

We live in “such a time as this.” It is a time desperately in need of Christian presence, action, and love. You and I live in this time, not the past, or the future. Our time is now. Let us not let it slip by without realizing God has a purpose for our being here when and where we are.

Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen

Read: The book of Esther.

Are You a Secret Agent?

Early in my adult life, I read a book by Billy Graham titled, Angels: God’s Secret Agents.* Playing on the popularity of spy movies and TV shows of the 1970s, the book laid out the reality of angelic beings who, though usually unseen (hence, “secret”) carry out God’s will in the world and in the lives of his people. Sometimes that work includes protection from harm, other times they are God’s messengers (the Greek word for angel is angelos, a word meaning messenger).

I certainly believe in such creatures, and believe they have intervened in my own life. But I also believe that God has other “secret agents” who serve his will, besides those angelic beings. Those other agents are plain old people, just like you and me. Sometimes those agents are known; other times they are “secret” – even at times to themselves.

I was reminded of this when I recently spoke at a memorial service. I told the mourners of how the deceased man had brought me a message of encouragement at a critical time in my life. During a time when I had been discouraged, I heard a conference speaker tell of how God might speak through someone whose opinion we respected. Within days of that talk, this very thing occurred. The man at whose service I spoke had affirmed my ministry; he was one of God’s “secret agents,” a human “angel” who didn’t even know his message was from God.

I’ve told the story of another such messenger, a visiting pastor who spoke one sentence in his sermon that changed the entire direction of my life. Before I had ever thought of going into the ministry, he said, “There’s a shortage of pastors in the Lutheran Church; some of you may consider that you are being called to the ministry.” His words hit me like a sledge hammer. They were God’s call on me, and after being confirmed by subsequent events, led me to quit my job, sell the house, go to seminary, and move to Elk Grove for a one year internship (which lasted for 22 years until retirement!) He was God’s secret agent who brought me what God’s will was for my life.

I’m sure we could all think of such people who touched our lives in ways that helped us. There were people who helped us in practical ways, meeting our physical and material needs. Other people helped us grow spiritually. Some have admonished us, corrected us, encouraged us, or taught us. Some have shown us Jesus Christ in word and action. They may have been friends, relatives, teachers, pastors (hopefully!), mentors, bosses, or even total strangers whom God sent to lead us in a certain direction, or away from the wrong one. The secret agent may not even be a believer.

One example of such an unknowing agent of God’s will is in John 11:49-52. There we read of the chief priests gathered to plot Jesus’ death. The high priest, Caiaphas, proclaimed, “. . . it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” The next verse tells us, “He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” Caiaphas’s words both explained and actually helped bring about God’s purpose in Christ’s sacrificial death – all without knowing he was God’s agent in doing so.

We find many examples of people serving as God’s agents in the Bible. The Old Testament prophets and New Testament Apostles were God’s not-so-secret agents in bringing God’s word to his people. Some brought words of Gods judgments, such as Jonah to the city of Nineveh. Another, named Agabus, brought a prophetic warning to Paul (Acts 21). Elizabeth blessed the pregnant Mary (Luke 1), and Priscilla and Aquila encouraged Apollos, writing to other believers to receive him warmly (Acts 18). In the Old Testament, Jonathan was an “angel” to his friend David, protecting him from King Saul during the latter’s bouts of anger (1 Samuel 20).

So, God does use special agents, angelic and human, to accomplish his will in the world. But how do we recognize that and be equipped to serve as his agents ourselves? Our nation’s agents learn what is called, “spycraft.” In that spirit, I offer the following training for those willing to serve as God’s agents. I call it:

SPYCRAFT 101

Know your handler. Code name: the Father.

Know your mission. Your “Handler” has graciously provided you with a manual which describes your overall mission – to make disciples of all nations – and provides you with ways to accomplish it – such as by teaching and baptizing (Mathew 28). Study the manual every day and memorize all you can; Job 22:22 says, “Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.” (Some other spy schools say to “read and then burn” their instructions, but we don’t recommend that here.)

Maintain communication with Headquarters. Before, during, and after you embark on a mission, maintain communication with the One who sent you out. Don’t make a big fancy show of it; we are told even to go into our rooms and “shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).

Spies use disguise. Remember that you may not recognize secret agents because they are, well, secret. They may come to you as total strangers, friends, family members, fellow students, co-workers, or even as pastors. Don’t write off what someone says just because they don’t seem important in the world’s way of looking at people. The Handler may have chosen that person for a very special purpose known only to him. Listen, and watch them and compare what they say to your spy manual.

Don’t draw attention to yourself. Spies use the concept of the “gray man,” meaning they assume an appearance in clothing and mannerisms that allows them to blend in with the crowd, so that they are not noticed or remembered. Apply this idea to yourself. If you help someone, don’t take the credit or boast of your role. It’s not about you. Jesus said if you do good works, people should give glory to the Father (Matthew 5:16). You don’t have to be special for God to use you. After all, God once spoke through a donkey to a prophet named Balaam -a lesson which prideful preachers need to take to heart! (Numbers 22:28).

Keep supplied. Remember that your Handler has vast storage depots ready to provide what you need to do your mission. Whether food – “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3); water – “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” (John 7:28); weapons -“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. . .” or armor – “put on the whole armor of God” Ephesians 6:11) (Hebrews 4:12). Philippians 4:19 promises, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Beware enemy agents. Yes, it is sad, but true. The enemy (code name: Beelzebub) employs his own agents in the world, demonic and human, seeking to subvert and destroy our Handler’s work and will. Their weapons include harassment, anger, hatred, lies, and even violence. But remember, although we often need to deal with them, we should never be afraid to carry out our own mission, because “He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Remember too that our war is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers – including Beelzebub (Ephesians 6:12). Therefore we are not to hate his human minions, but must seek to turn them, converting them from being enemy agents into servants of our Handler. (Nothing like a good double-agent to thwart the enemy’s plans!)

Small missions can yield big results. Don’t be discouraged if the work you do for the handler seems small or insignificant. You have no idea what the results are that will ripple outward and down through time because of that little word you said, the encouragement you offered, or the seemingly weak testimony you gave. Your Handler knows what he is doing, and can multiply your work. Even if you don’t see immediate results, your courage in acting may help you to do more next time. You are after all, a trainee (as are we all!).

Finally, we should note that our Handler doesn’t really need us to do anything for him. It is by his grace and mercy that he recruits and allows us to play a role in his work. He could accomplish it all by a single command and the very atoms would have to obey, as they did in creation, and as they continue to do, being held together by his word. But by his grace, he does involve us, blessing us with the eternal joy of being part of his plan. How wonderful is that!

Nathan Hale, one of our nation’s first spies said before he died: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” When we can say that about giving our life to the Great Handler, then we will truly be God’s secret agents.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Philippians 3:20-21; 1 John 3:1

*Billy Graham, Angels: God’s Secret Agents, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee, 1975 – 1995.

My Wife Is a Karen

My wife is a Karen, my father was a Dick, and one of my best friends is a John. No, I’m not insulting them – those are their real names. Contrary to some current memes and connotations, my wife is not a self-centered, privileged woman who treats people condescendingly; my father was not a jerk (nor a private detective nor something else); nor does my friend frequent practitioners of the “world’s oldest profession.”*

How is it that perfectly good names take on such offensive meanings? How is it that a name such as Karen, which comes from a Greek word meaning “Pure,” came to be used as a put-down?

Sometimes, it happens because a certain person who bore that name did something bad, causing people to forever associate that name with wrong-doing. For example, if you call someone a Judas, a Benedict Arnold, or a Quisling (Norwegian traitor in World War II), you are calling them a traitor who has betrayed someone’s trust. There is even something called a “Judas goat,” a goat trained to lead sheep to the slaughter while not itself being killed. And would anyone name their newborn son, “Hitler”? (Actually, a couple in New Jersey did just that, and lost custody of their child for it!)

Sometimes, characters in books or movies are so stereotyped that their names become synonymous with certain characteristics. Someone (especially a girl) who is always cheerful and sees only the good in everyone and everything is a “Pollyanna.” Someone who is good at everything without training or experience, such as the character Rey in the Star Wars sequels, is a “Peggy Sue.” An African-American who relates well with whites gets called an “Uncle Tom” after the elderly slave in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 anti-slavery novel of the same name. And would you buy a dog whose name was Cujo?

Whatever the reason for using names as insults, I think we need to stop doing it. A person’s name is tied to their identity: to who they are and where they came from. They may be named for a beloved relative, for an honored historical figure, for the parents’ favorite place, or just because the name sounds good. They may bear biblical names, such as David, Mary, Adam, Martha, or yes, even Jesus (or do you say, “hay-soos”?). Whatever the name given to the child, they grow up with that name as part of who they are. For example, I was always proud of the name, Richard, as my dad’s namesake and for sharing the name with three kings of England – especially Richard the Lion-hearted, hero of the Robin Hood movies.

Last names especially point to a person’s ethnic heritage or family history, of which no one should be ashamed. Whatever national clues show up in a person’s name, such as O’, Mc, -son or -sen, -ov or -ova, de- or d’, or ki-, we should treasure them as indicative of the journeys our families took.**

When I was the leader for local Y-Indian Guides programs, I told the new recruits to select “Indian” names for themselves and their sons. Yes, this is horribly not politically correct these days, but I instructed them to choose, carefully and respectfully, names that honored Native Americans. I told them that while they had no choice in naming themselves at their birth, they now had a chance to pick a name to be proud of. I reflected on how my dad had chosen Indian Guide names for us when I was a child: Apalachee (Helper) for himself, and Neekanah (Friend) for me.

There is no greater argument for the value of a person’s name than the examples we find in the Bible. There, names are indicators of people’s natures and importance, especially to God. Virtually every name has special meaning, for example: Adam=”man,” Eve=”mother of all living,” David= “beloved,” Abimelech=”my father is king,” Daniel=”God is my judge,” and Elijah=”my God is Yahweh.” Names were so important that God actually changed certain people’s names to reflect his interaction with them, or his new purpose for them. Some of those changes were when he renamed Abram “high father” to Abraham “father of many” (Genesis 15:5); Sarai “my princess” to Sarah “princess of Yah[weh]” (Genesis 17:15); and Jacob “grasper of the heel” to Israel “striver, contender” (Genesis 32:28).

In the New Testament, there were two significant name changes: Jesus called his disciple, Simon “he has heard” by the name, Peter “stone” when the latter professed the faith on which Christ would build his Church. (Matthew 16:18); and another great apostle, Saul “prayed for,” became known as Paul “small, humble.” Interestingly, when Paul wrote his letter to Philemon, he asked him to welcome home graciously his former slave, Onesimus, a name which means “useful.” Paul actually told Philemon that Onesimus was formerly “useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me” (Philemon 1:11).

But of all names, in the Bible or elsewhere, the ultimate significant naming was when God told Joseph and Mary to name her spirit-conceived Son, “Jesus.” Why? “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus, or Yeshua, mean “the Lord saves” or “Savior.” It was the same name belonging to Joshua of the Old Testament, who led the Israelites into the Promised Land, a foreshadowing of what Jesus does for those he has redeemed. How important is Jesus’ name? Philippians 2:9-11 tells us, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” I rest my case.

God has told us to treat his name – and obviously, the name of his Son – with respect and reverence. The Second Commandment tells us , “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). It grates on my spirit, and saddens me, when so many people today use the name of Jesus as a curse word, or flippantly say OMG when they are not actually calling on God in prayer. As Christians, those who will one day receive new names in heaven (Revelation 2:17), let us honor God by using his holy name with the love and reverence he deserves.

Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But he was wrong, at least as far as the importance a name has for the person who bears it. So let’s treat each other’s names with respect, and by doing so, bring honor to the One who calls us to himself by name (John 10:3).

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Luke 1:31 and 2:21; Philippians 2:5-11; Revelation 2: 17 and 3:11-12

* Actually, the oldest profession was gardening, because, in the beginning, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” Genesis 2:15

** Can you identify the origins of the indicated national name clues? Hint: one of them is Zulu for “son of.”

Dearly Begotten

After my sister died last year, my wife and I flew out to Indiana to empty her storage unit and haul it all back to California by truck . In the over four months since, we have been going through everything: trashing, recycling, shredding, and/or donating items as appropriate. It’s been an arduous task, but finally our house is regaining some semblance of normalcy (meaning I still have my things to trash, recycle, shred, and/or donate as appropriate).

Included in box after box from storage were hundreds of family treasures; not gold and silver, but old photos, documents. family writings, and truly historical artifacts. Specifically, things like souvenirs from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, newspapers announcing the end of World War II, a newspaper from 1901 detailing the death of my grandmother’s brother-in-law during the “Philippine Insurrection,” and accounts of my family’s wanderings such as stories of one great-great-grandmother sailing to America from Germany in 1864 (while another ancestor was being wounded repelling the Confederates from their attack on Washington, DC).

We found so much that we needed to put in order, that we joined a couple online genealogy sites to flesh out our family trees by building on earlier attempts to do so. I had already drawn several trees for a project back in junior high or late grade school (talk about ancient documents!), but they needed correcting and updating.

It’s taking a lot of time and effort, but we have been enjoying the work; we’ve been detectives, solving who was related to whom and how, and what they did in their lifetime. From all this study, we’ve found lots of fascinating stories:

Two ancestors from different lines, both wounded in the leg during the Civil War and carrying the bullets the rest of their lives.
A grandmother who was a concert soloist and was offered the chance to study music in Italy, but turned it down to marry my grandfather. (Which proves not every good gene gets passed down to your grandchildren.)
One ancestor murdered by counterfeiters when he discovered them.
Great-grandparents living in a sod-house on the Kansas prairie.
A great-grandmother saving her paper dolls during the Chicago Fire of 1871.
The first Eddy coming to America in 1630 on the last of the Pilgrim ships: the Handmaid.
The death of one ancestor during another pandemic in 1918.

It’s been fascinating to not only read about events like these, but to do so in the handwriting of family who have gone before. I joke to Karen that we need to establish a museum to preserve and exhibit all these treasures!

But, as wonderful as learning about family can be, it has had a sobering effect on me, sometimes leaving me drained emotionally and mentally. It’s done so because of the weight of all those lives, lived over the centuries, but now gone from the earth. As I plug in birth and death dates for each relative I am reminded of the temporary nature of life. It reminds me of reading parts of the book of Genesis in the King James Version, such as chapter 5 with its repeated formula: “so-and-so lived and begat so-and-so and then he died.” For example:

“And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.” (Genesis 5:5-11)

All my family down to and including all my aunts and uncles, are dead and buried. Now even my sister is gone, and looking ahead, I know that one day this century my own leaf on the family tree will receive its last notation. How depressing is that!

And yet, there’s something else I have found and been encouraged by, one fact that inspires and actually overcomes the sad notes of loss and the temporary nature of life on this earth: almost all of my family were, or are, Christians. There is a thread of faith that winds its way down through the various family lines and generations, from parent to child, and from our family to others. Besides the many statements connected with eulogies and gravestones, there are letters, testimonies, and artifacts that celebrate Christ:

An article in German celebrating the life of one great-great-grandmother who came to faith in Germany before coming to America and joined a church in Chicago immediately upon arrival. It said that in spite of much suffering at the end of her life, she had einen unerschütterlichen Glauben, that is, an unshakeable faith in God.
A stranger who walked into my parents’ 50th Anniversary party and thanked my dad for bringing him to faith when the man was a student in my dad’s Sunday School class – 50 years earlier.
Speaking of Sunday School, we found a 10-year Perfect Attendance pin.
We have photos of South Dakota in the late 1800s taken by one great-grandfather who was a Methodist Circuit Rider and minister in that area.
Another line that included a Lutheran bishop in Stuttgart, Germany.
There’s the statement from one genealogist that there has never been a generation of Eddy’s without a pastor.

These evidences mean so much to me, for not only did so many relatives live lives here on earth in ways that honored Christ and sought to obey his Word, but their faith in God’s promises means that their lives did not end when they left this earth. It means they are even now in the presence of the One they believed in. It also means that one day, their gravestones will need a new date added: the date of their resurrection. On that day, Christ will return with a shout and call the vast numbers from every family and lineage forth from their graves, some to judgment, and others to eternal life. It gives me joy to anticipate the resurrection of the many ancestors I never got to meet: what a family reunion that will be!

I’d like to close with a poem I found from the pen of a grandmother* I was too young to know before she died, but whom I expect to one day meet. I found this poem in her handwriting among the papers we saved:

We know that our works don’t save us; that is the result of God’s grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. But how much better would life be for us and for the world around us if everyone sought to please God by our “Kind Words. Loving Acts, and Christian Living”? And how much better our family relationships and legacy might be if we taught the next generations to believe and love Christ and seek to follow his commands? There is a reason God commanded us to do so in places such as Leviticus 10:11, Deuteronomy 6:7, Matthew 28:20, John 14:15, and John 14:21.

Eventually the day will come when God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). Thanks be to God for that promise, and for the gift of eternal life through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Genesis 5, Leviticus 10:11, Deuteronomy 6:7, Matthew 28:20, John 14.

*The same grandmother who gave up studying music in Italy.