Finding our roots

Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.  –Deuteronomy 32:7 (ESV)

You smell it before you see it. I was born in Luling, Texas. It's a town about 47 miles south of Austin, established in 1874. A sleepy little place with an economy built on railroads, cattle, and cotton, it had a population of less than a thousand until the 1920's. Then Edgar Davis discovered oil, and Luling became a boomtown. The population grew to around 5,000 and that's pretty much where it has stayed in the ninety-plus years since.

The scent of crude oil permeates the air around Luling. If you're coming in from the north on US 183, you pick it up about a half-mile shy of the city limits. To folks who are just passing through, it can smell like a cross between a skunk and a broken septic tank. To the locals, it smells like money. To me, it represents the memory of visits to my grandparents' house, playing with cousins, good food, good stories, and exploring on the banks of the San Marcos River. It's little, it's simple, and it sure don't smell like roses. But it's a special place.

Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.  I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble. Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.  –Proverbs 4:10-13 (ESV)

The thing that makes Luling special to me is the people I associate with it. I can look back on three generations before me there and see my roots, roots anchored in devotion, hard work, honesty, a knowledge of God and a love for His Son. They weren’t perfect, any more than I am, but they had a standard and they did their best to honor it. The foundation laid there extends out two generations beyond me, to my children and grandchildren. So when I went back this week, I could not help but reflect on that legacy with a measure of awe and gratitude.

Maybe you were blessed to enjoy a similar legacy. Maybe not. Either way, there have been people in our lives who endured sacrifices to help make us what we are today. Let us take a moment to remember, take stock, and give thanks. We ought neither rest on the accomplishments of those who came before us, nor use their failures as an excuse for our own shortcomings.

So even to old age and gray hairs,  O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.  –Psalm 71:18 (ESV)

Our roots are part of the story which God, in His perfect plans, has written for us. What we make of them is our worship back to Him. It's never too early or too late to do the right thing. Even, for some of us, when the right thing means watching and praying for a prodigal child. The next generation is counting on us.

This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls...."  –Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)