Probably one of my favorite memories from our family reunion trip was on Sunday morning, when my cousins and I sang together at church. Glenallen picked out the song, "How Great is Our God," and while it is a great song and it was in a good range for all of us and it was familiar enough for the musicians to be able to just do a quick practice together before the service... I didn't understand how perfect it really was until later, when my dad got up and preached.
He talked about the Israelites... those silly, forgetful Israelites, who just couldn't seem to recall from one generation to the next the faithfulness of God. The whole book of Judges is practically about how God had to find a new way in every generation to help his own people rediscover who he was. Why couldn't they look back, hear the stories, read the accounts and continue believing by faith? Parents have a sober responsibility to pass on the truth of God to their children... but children, you aren't off the hook! Your responsibility is to remember... and decide whether to believe it or reject it... to carry on the stories of your parents and add some more of your own, to know him as your God, not just as the God of your fathers.
That's something I really love about spending time with my cousins. They aren't just creative, beautiful, talented, brilliant people - they also have chosen for themselves to love and chase after God... to call him their own. You can see it in their faces, find it in their actions, sense it in their relationships, experience it through their gifts and passions, and hear it in their songs:
"How great is our God!
Sing with me, how great is our God!
And all will see how great, how great is our God!"
Pass it on, cousins... be faithful to our God, and pass on that faithfulness to the next generation, so they can see and know, and call him their God too.
