Day 23: May 27Scripture: Matthew 18: 1-5 A widely-held Native American tradition is that every action touches seven generations: our own, the three yet to come—and the three generations past. Do you ever consider how your actions are still touching your ancestors? Their story is not finished. You are writing their final chapters with every choice you make. Your life will affirm their sacrifices or show that they hoped and dreamed in vain. For this reason, Native people call unborn children “our ancestors yet to be.” These future generations will write the final pages of our life stories. Jesus understood this very well. He knew he could not complete his spiritual mission—not even in his extraordinary lifetime. His spiritual children would determine whether his life and death were worthwhile. He was counting on his disciples to become the ancestors of his legacy. He still is. Today, we are called to be Christ’s children. We are entrusted with his legacy. Whether his mission succeeds or fails will depend on our choices. But our calling is not a self-contained, self-fulfilling destiny. Our work is still too great to be completed in one lifetime. We, too, will pass on our hopes and dreams to our ancestors yet to be. Will those children know how to carry forward our calling? They will—if we show them how. If we are guided by self-interest, behaving as if our choices are entirely our own, then we will teach them to be self-sufficient and self-centered. Our legacy will die within one generation. But if you live as a child of a great tradition, then your actions will live for seven generations. Come as a child, live as an ancestor. Larry Jent |