Throughout my life I’ve discounted encouragement to become involved in Family History thinking previous relatives had already found any ancestors that could be found on my family tree. However, a few years ago, I took an ancestry.com DNA test. There’s a feature on Ancestry called ThruLines that provides generations of direct ancestors through connecting DNA. I’ve been able to use this to confirm information, make corrections and add additional notations to familysearch.org. An added and unexpected benefit has been to make sweet connections with relatives.
Family History work has been fascinating and I'm starting to understand why the elderly have always seemed to be enamored with it. Beyond a simple birth and death date, each individual experienced heartbreaks and loss, had weaknesses and failures yet also loved and were loved, had courage, fortitude, commitment and strength. It's been humbling to get a small glimpse into their encounters with God and our mutual need for His great plan of redemption.
At times, it's challenging to think that an all-powerful, intelligent, Creator of worlds without end could possibly care about me. However, He is aware of everyone who has ever been on this earth and it brings comfort to know He will still love me even after the here and now. I feel God is pleased when I make efforts to find those who have passed on.
It’s also been a reminder to record the countless, simple day-to-day experiences, so easy to discount, that have brought me joy and fulfillment. So many cherished memories: Singing songs with my mom as a little girl, basketball games with my dad and brothers, a fire and blanket on snowy winter nights. Later, weddings and facing the unknowns of new homes and new places. The painfully obvious realization that I was out of my element at the demands of nurturing a new life but then getting the hang of it, then getting really good at it. The unexpected sudden surge of gratitude for my own mom for keeping me alive for the first few months of life when I became a sleep deprived mom myself. Babies learning to crawl, jump over puddles and attempts at cartwheels, making Valentines, bike rides, climbing trees, teaching children to read and then frequenting the library enough to be on a first name basis with the librarians. Children mastering the art of riding a mattress down the stairs on rainy days. The perfect moonlit nights looking out the window at the stars and tucking toddlers in with their favorite lullabies. The heart wrenching good-byes as people who loved me have passed on holding an elderly wrinkled, bruised hand to say goodbye but holding even more tightly to the scripture, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" That kind of love changes you. It becomes a part of who you are. The songs, the stories, the times I felt God's rescuing hand; my own encounters with His goodness. I feel God's love when I look for my ancestors and when I take the time to record my own memories. I can't recommend Family History enough!
