What Lasts Forever? Only Jesus & His Love!

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘We will not hide <our ancestors’ Words of Faith> from our descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.’ (Psalm 78:4)

A lot of what our President has done in his first 100 days is by Executive Order, which is supposed to be a stop-gap measure to accomplish a common goal for the good of the nation as a whole, until Congress can either create a law to solidify it, allow it to continue to be temporary by not doing anything, or reject it.  Executive Orders are good until they are overruled by Congress’ law-making, or a future President removes it by an Executive Order of his or her own.

Even if a law solidifies an ‘EO’, that doesn’t make it permanent forever.  The US Constitution, though made to be static, changes with an Amendment, and there are 27 Amendments to date.  Amendments, however, can also be changed or eliminated; the 18^th Amendment was passed in 1919 prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol, but was later repealed by the 21^st Amendment in 1933.  Laws are often passed to modify or eliminate previous laws. 

In a more personal setting, our families are not always what they used to be, and won’t be in the future what they are today.  Like EOs and laws, families change over time.  Usually, unless the person has a very important stature and place in history, that person is mostly forgotten as time passes.  Wolfgang Michel Jager, my quadruple-great grandfather, was born in Germany and possibly left with his son (and my triple-great-grandfather), John George Yeager, for Pennsylvania in 1809.  The change from ‘Jager’ to ‘Yeager’ likely was due to the Anglicization of the name on immigration records, a small price to pay to have the promise of a future in America. 

I don’t know too much about either Wolfgang or John except for this little fact that they left Germany for the US.  Even the name change is conjecture and it is not known why it really happened.  (It could be Johnny figured ‘the first would be last and the last would be first’ (Matthew 19:30), so changing it to Yeager would move him close to the first in line at the Rapture, as it may go by reverse alphabetical order.)  Even though I know of Wolfgang Michel Jager was the last of the Jager/Yeager line to live in Germany (in the late 1700’s/early 1800’s), I don’t know who he was, what he looked like, or did he leave Germany, and where he’s buried at – the US or Germany? 

Now things can be passed down and some families have those heirlooms that go from generation to generation.  But at some point, those get lost, broken, stolen, sold for cash, or there’s too many descendants and not enough heirlooms.  Is there anything of permanency that we can leave behind for our family and others that they won’t spend, sell, or give away?   If there’s anything to what my spouse and I leave behind, I’m sure my kids will spend it (hopefully on needs and not junk).  So, the question remains, what can we leave that is permanent? 

The only thing of real permanence that we can leave behind is the Word of our Lord!  If we teach our children (and our grandchildren, and if you’re seasoned enough great-grandchildren) about the Gospel message of Jesus, then our legacy will be one that is remembered, even if our names and lives won’t be.  We often overlook, when we think of these things or of loved ones who’ve gone before us, that with God we are still alive with Him – the only thing that has Eternal permanence.  While it is still a personal decision solely up to the descendant, the Lord’s Word given to our children may the tipping point between Salvation and condemnation. 

As I have told my teenage grandson, think about what you’ll do to the Yeager name before acting in a nefarious manner.  I pray that when others see ‘Yeager’ on a piece of paper or hear the name, they think ‘Christian, Faithful, good’ and not ‘selfish, mean, narcissistic’.   But I can only give this advice to my grandchildren and maybe my great-grandchildren.

I doubt I’ll see a double-great grandchild (unless my brain is transplanted and installed into a cyborg shell like a Terminator, which may or may not be cool). It may even come to pass that further down the line that a Yeager male may marry and only have daughters, or no children at all. So the name is not eternal. The only thing that I can give my future lineage is the Gospel of Jesus, and pray it is passed down from generation to generation.

I pray that when I arrive in Heaven, whenever God calls my number on the waiting list (hopefully not a long wait, as per Matthew 19:30, but that’s not up to me), that in addition to meeting our Lord that eventually (in His time) I’ll also see my children, grandchildren, and my ancestors there.  Perhaps old Wolfgang will be there and I can at some point ask how his life was and how things were for him in the 1700’s (I understand internet speed was dependent on whether the pigeons were flying in a headwind or tailwind back then).

If we teach our children about the Lord, and to ensure they understand how precious it is, all other things are superfluous.  My mother was not necessarily the easiest person to deal with and she suffered from both physical and mental issues that caused her great bitterness, nevertheless she also on Sundays always had Rex Humbard on the TV and would read her Bible and tell me to love Jesus.  It didn’t quite stick until later in my life, but of all the things imperfect about my mom, it’s the one thing, the love of Christ, that I’ll always be able to hold onto.  Don’t worry about the cash, leave your children Jesus and His Word.