Sending Healing into Our Family's Future

     Isaiah 58: 12 says "And they that be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, the repairer of the breach; the restorer of paths to dwell in.

     This is a precious passage to me. I've made a pencil-drawing of my family tree which I keep carefully folded inside my Bible. Every now and then I take it out and place my hands over each name and pray for God's blessings upon them...from the oldest to the youngest. And I ask that God will strengthen my family tree and bloodlines with his grace and goodness...and that he will banish evil from it. I want those old waste places and breaches restored or in modern day language-the dysfunction healed.
     So this evening, as I continued my reading of "Storycatching",  by Christina Baldwin, chapter 7 really spoke to me. Chapter 7, entitled Writing and Talking in the Seven Generations describes a Basque tradition from the people of Spain which says...

Angeles Arrien, a transcultural anthropologist raised in the Basque traditions of the original mountain people of Spain, teaches that our ancestors hover over the cradle of each new baby born into their lineage and ask...'Will this be the child to heal the line? Will this be the one to change our story?'

     As a grandmother, I feel responsible to write as a legacy for my family; to say things that will connect past to  present; and give those headed into the future the foundation of knowing who they are by telling them where they have come from.     
     But an idea proposed in 'Storycatchers'  really startled me...the idea that one might actually be able to heal the family line with her stories by recording not only the admirable things we know about our family; but to expose the pitfalls, those dark shadowy clouds that seem to hang over consecutive generations...cursed things like alcoholism,  teen pregnacy, depression, poverty...and the like.
     I wonder... Could you and I really banish the monsters that have hidden in our closets for generations by exposing them? And if so, how can we tactfully yet courageously open those doors that so many family members would prefer that we keep shut?
       
     The final question in the chapter asked...

"What decisions made in the last three generations are you grateful for? What decisions are you making now that you hope your grandchildren will be grateful for?"

Something to think about, isn't it?

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