Hey, remember 750 years ago?

But God’s Spirit gives us rest

Isaiah 63:10-14 But they rebelled against him and grieved his Holy Spirit. … Then they remembered those days of old when Moses led his people out of Egypt. They cried out, “Where is the one who brought Israel through the sea, with Moses as their shepherd? Where is the one who sent his Holy Spirit to be among his people? … As with cattle going down into a peaceful valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.

Isaiah 12:4-5 Tell the nations what God has done. Let them know how mighty he is! Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things. Make known his praise around the world.

The theme of remembering we considered in the last post continues in Isaiah 63, when Isaiah looks back 750 years to Moses leading the people of Israel in their great exodus from slavery in Egypt. Isaiah cries out for the Lord to show himself anew in his time as he did way back then.

Timeline by Anthony Scott Ingram. Isaiah prophesied approximately 750-700 BC. The Exodus occurred approximately 1500 BC.

Think about that for a moment. What do you know about your history 750 years ago, in 1275 AD? That date means nothing to me. I asked Google what was going on in the world back then:

“In 1275 CE, the English King Edward I issued the Statute of Westminster to define landowners’ rights, the Marinids captured Algiers, and a significant British earthquake occurred. In the East, Kublai Khan sent more ambassadors to Japan, leading to the execution of messengers and prompting the Japanese to fortify Hakata Bay. Marco Polo reached China and entered the service of Kublai Khan, beginning his significant journey across Asia …”

Then I asked Google what was happening in Christianity in 1275 AD:

“In 1275 CE, a key event was the arrival of Marco Polo in China, where he presented letters from the previous Pope, Gregory X, to Kublai Khan. This followed the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, which Pope Gregory X had convened to attempt to reunite the Eastern and Western churches but ultimately failed to provide a lasting solution to the Great Schism.”

The Great Schism, I learned, “was the formal separation of the Roman Catholic Church in the West from the Eastern Orthodox churches in the East in 1054, a division that continues to this day.” A rupture in God’s family never repaired, except perhaps in individual relationships.

What I can’t ask Google is what was happening in my ancestors’ lives 750 years ago. Did they love and serve the Lord? Did they see him do mighty acts on their behalf?

What was God doing among his people in 1275 AD, not just in major historical ways, but personally? I don’t know. I don’t even know my own family story—not in any detail—past two generations before me. We haven’t done a great job of passing down from generation to generation God’s great acts in our lives.

I can’t change the legacy I received. But I can change the legacy I pass on, by recording the miracles God has done in my life; the works of the Spirit that I have witnessed. I want my great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren to have a record they can look back to, as Isaiah looked back to Moses: a testimony to God’s faithfulness that may bolster confidence that he sees and cares for them too.

In the long run, this may be one of the most important things I ever do. You too?

When I wrote the Karis book, I was thinking only of my grandchildren, yet unborn. Perhaps, though, later generations will read it. If they do, I hope they will see that God is alive, active, and attuned to their needs as he was to ours. I hope they realize he sees them.

Our youngest little this week, turning 3.

Lord, look down from heaven; look from your holy, glorious home, and see us. Where is the passion and the might you used to show on our behalf? Where are your mercy and compassion now? Surely you are still our Father! … Return and help us, for we are your servants (Isaiah 63:15-17).

What are our kids learning from us?

But God’s Spirit will not leave us

Isaiah 59:21 “And this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children’s children forever. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Have you seen The Chosen Season 5, Episode 4, where the disciples recite the traditional 14-point Dayenu (“it would have been enough”), detailing some of God’s miracles in the history of Israel?

Later in the episode, the women recite their own Dayenu, but they personalize it in a moving recital of God’s wonderful works in their own lives. This prompted me to articulate (in Spanish) some of God’s acts in my own experience, spanning seven decades, several continents, and a series of seemingly impossible situations.

I recommend trying this. It’s more than an encouraging exercise—it’s a stimulus for praise! The biggest challenge is to contain all he has done in fourteen points.

I haven’t talked with my family about this yet, but I’ve been thinking about how we might do something similar this Thanksgiving, in part to pass on to our children and grandchildren some of what God has done for Dave and me. That’s what the Jewish Dayenu tradition does: it rehearses and passes down God’s acts from generation to generation.

Shutterstock: Carlo Prearo

And God doesn’t change. When he does marvelous things in my life, it’s not just for me. It’s a revelation of his character and purposes for all who witness or hear about it. That’s true for you too, hence this blog, where I long to showcase him through YOUR “God stories.”

As Mary expressed it in her song of praise (called the Magnificat):

The Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me

He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him.

What great things has God done for you?

Song of Mary by Liturgical Folk

Advent’s two stories

But God performs mighty acts

Psalm 145:1-4 I will exalt you, my God and King and praise your name forever and ever… No one can measure the Lord’s greatness. Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power.

Advent is a time for storytelling. Not just any story, but two stories filled with complex and vulnerable characters who grow and change, amazing adventures, and awesome rescues by the greatest, most powerful, most admirable actor of all time.

One story is about what happened on planet Earth two thousand years ago: the birth of a poor baby who was actually a Prince, sent by his father, the King, to rescue the world from the clutches of an evil tyrant.

The second story foretells the Prince’s return to Earth to set everything right. It’s the happy ending which will begin a new story, a wonderful sequel.

What story am I telling my children and grandchildren?

This Advent, I want to challenge you to think as well about your own story. In Psalm 145, David repeatedly calls us to share with others our own stories of God’s power and greatness, beginning with our children and grandchildren and others of the next generations.

I want to leave you with three questions today:

Does your story matter? Why should you invest in remembering, understanding, and sharing your story?
Where do you see God in your story? What mighty acts has he performed for you?
What impact can your response to question #2 have on your children and grandchildren and/or others of the next generations? What has your life experience shown or taught you that you would like to pass on to them?

I hope these questions will help you begin to see and value your story differently.

As I think about the legacy my husband Dave and I received from our parents and grandparents, I’m both sad and encouraged. Some parts of their stories were never resolved or healed, and we were bruised from the impact of their pain. In other ways, their stories challenge and strengthen us to move forward, to offer our descendants hope as we embrace and share God’s grace and mighty acts in our lives.

I hope you will join me in storytelling this Advent! Of both Great Stories, and the ways your experiences weave their unique part of the fabric the Great Stories continue creating.

Remember and tell!

But God stands by his covenant

Psalm 105:1-2, 7-8 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. … He is the Lord our God. His justice is seen throughout the land. He always stands by his covenant—the commitment he made to a thousand generations.

Matthew 26:28 This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.

I was only thinking of three generations when I wrote Karis: All I See Is Grace: my own generation, my children, and my grandchildren, yet unborn. I wanted my children’s spouses and my future grandchildren to know what God had done in our family through his faithfulness to Karis. Verses 1 and 2 of this psalm were part of what motivated me to persist through the three years it took me to write the book, along with Psalms 78:4-7, 102:18, 107:2, 118:17, and 145:4 and 12. All of them instruct us to remember and to tell what God does for us.

Imagine making a commitment to a thousand generations! I know that number means “all the generations to come,” but if we think about it literally and conservatively, choosing twenty years as the length of a generation, a thousand generations is 20,000 years. God keeps his covenant for at least that long. All recorded history is a small dent. Here we are, in our generation, still praising God for his faithfulness to us. If we notice what God does for us when it happens, remember it, and tell others, we’ll be part of Asaph’s vision in Psalm 78.

Last week in Idaho, my sister Marsha and I put together the “reunion puzzle” our daughter Valerie created from photos of the members of the extended Elliott family, in keeping with our reunion theme, “Pieces of a Whole.” The progeny of my parents, Ray and Helen Elliott, now numbers 81, with three to be born in the next three months.

Our reunion puzzle
*Three more babies coming, in September, October, and November!*

As the beloved faces emerged in the puzzle, I prayed for each of us to remember and celebrate God’s covenant of love for us, in the past, in the present, and stretching into the future to those not yet born and those yet to be brought into the family by marriage or by adoption.

Keeping covenant is costly. It’s not simple or easy. It cost God the life of his son. That’s the measure and standard he set for us. Today, my 68^th birthday, I’m asking him to show me day by day in this next year how to live out his covenant; with more boldness remembering and telling, “so the next generation will set its hope anew on God” (Psalm 78:4-7).