There is an old Randy Travis song that I love about three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway. I especially love this line from the chorus, “It’s not what you take with you when you leave this world behind you; it’s what you leave behind you when you go.” When we leave this world, we will be traveling very light; even leaving behind our earthly bodies (which, in my case, will be a huge blessing). Everything we own will be left as an inheritance for someone else. But much more important, we will leave a legacy of memories and feelings in the minds and hearts of others. I’ve mentioned before that psychologists have found that more than our words or even our actions, people remember most about us the way we make them feel when we are with them. Leaving love, encouragement and joy in the hearts and minds of everyone who really knows me is the most valuable legacy I can leave behind, especially if it encourages them to find and grow into a loving relationship of their own with God.
I’ve heard it said when an elderly person dies; it is like a library just burned to the ground full of wisdom, stories of personal experiences and an eyewitness account of history. One of the reasons I started this blog was to share all of that information while I’m still around. In addition to being shared on my blog, every one of my posts, the eulogy for my wife, my personal mission statement and more are stored on a thumb drive. I have five or six oral presentations of about eight minutes each that I hope to record. They include songs, recitations and my testimony. They could even be used in a memorial service for me some day or just for someone’s encouragement and inspiration.
Enough about our legacy; I want to remind you of God’s legacy to us. In his sermon Sunday, Pastor Sam Hamstra of our Hammond campus described the fostering and adopting of their son, Daniel. It is an amazing story of love, joy and faith. Of course he reminded us that God has adopted us into His family, as described in Romans chapter 8, and is now our loving Abba (Daddy). The same benefits and privileges Daniel enjoys in his adopted home are available to us on a much larger scale. God’s legacy includes an inheritance in heaven someday, but it is the legacy that He provides us even now through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ so that we can become His adopted sons and daughters and joint heirs with Jesus. We don’t have to rely on how we feel when we are in His presence during prayer or worship. His Holy Spirit actually dwells in us continually providing the love, encouragement, correction, wisdom and guidance of our loving Daddy (Abba). Our heavenly Father knows how to give perfect gifts to his children. Everything He does for us, including discipline, is for our own good. All He asks of us in return is our love and obedience.