Generations

Now these were the generations of Perez . . .

. . . . to Salmon was born Boaz, and to Boaz , Obed, and to Obed was born Jesse, and to Jesse, David. (Ruth 4:18-21)

Typically long lists of “begets” are no one’s favorite parts of the Bible. And so and so was the father of so and so, and so it goes on and on.

Last weekend Olivia brought a car-load of college friends home for some southern hospitality. Four friends from far away places: Courtney, Stephanie, Sam and Chris, . One each from California, Washington state, Texas and Canada.

We enjoyed treating them to Louisville’s best barbecue and ice cream. They got to visit church, catch up on sleep, do a few loads of laundry and generally benefit from some laid-back, in-home R&R.

Early in the visit, we were sitting around in the living room, just kind of popping questions back and forth getting to know them all a little bit, when Stephanie mentioned that  her grandfather was Dr. Gene Getz. Kurt and I knew Gene Getz, not personally, but through his ministry of church planting and authoring numerous books. We also knew that somewhere down the line the Sauder family and the Getz families were related.

Stephanie got her Pappa Getz on the phone and Kurt called his dad Jerry.  As it turns out, the connection is not nearly as far back as we assumed. Gene’s grandpa and Jerry’s grandma were brother and sister. Olivia and Stephanie share a great, great, great Grandpa, making them 4th cousins!

How cool is that! Out of all the students on campus these two end up in the same dorm, on the same floor and become great friends never even realizing they shared a blood connection.

So, I’m reading through the book of Ruth this morning, relishing in that beautiful love story and realizing that genealogies are so important. God works through human generations to accomplish His divine purposes. Ruth and Boaz are drawn together before they know of their family connection. As these two lives intersect, as their paths intertwine, God is at work redeeming, not just the sorrow of Naomi’s life or even Ruth’s, but of all of mankind.

From Ruth and Boaz’s union comes Obed. Obed is the father of Jesse who is the father of David from whose line came Christ the Redeemer.

At Obed’s birth, the women of  her town celebrated with Naomi and said of her new-born blessing, “May he also be to you a restorer of life . . . (Ruth 4:15).” Surely he was a restorer of life to once bitter Naomi, but he was so much more. Obed was the forefather of the Restorer of Life – Messiah Jesus.

Average, ordinary, sinful, broken generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, become lines of grace traced down through the years by the finger of our God as He works all things together for our good and His glory!

Every generation needs a Redeemer, a Restorer of Life. For those of us wholly given over to Christ, we become a vehicle in our generation for God’s redemption to be at work. Acts 13:36 says, “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay.”

While you have breath you have the opportunity to serve the purpose of God in your generation. Go to it!