I woke up early one morning, struggling through life. I began to mourn the loss of my grandfather all over again. I felt weak and wished he was alive to give me some advice—some strength. My grandfather, along with my grandmother, raised me. Losing him was akin to losing a father.
That morning, I penned a poem about my grandfather. The last two lines read, “His GOD was His strength. His GOD is my GOD.” It struck me—that was his legacy. Before he left this world, he left me with the knowledge of the source of his strength. I was reminded that though I depended on my grandfather for a lot, he depended on GOD, and therefore I was always dependent on GOD. My grandfather is gone, and now more than ever, I have to go directly to the source—the source that he always told me about. That is legacy.
Martin Luther King Jr. preached a sermon entitled, “Why Jesus Called A Man A Fool.” In this sermon, he described how the constant threats on his life were starting to get to him. One night a threat via phone call worried him so much he was not able to go back to sleep. If you can imagine the patented Martin Luther King Jr. tone as he reaches the crescendo of his sermon, he says, “Something said to me, you can’t call on daddy now. He’s up in Atlanta, 175 miles away. You can’t even call on momma now. You gotta call on that Something and that Person that daddy use to tell you about. That Power that can make a way out of no way.” His father gave him the source. That is legacy.
When GOD revealed himself to Moses, HE said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” That is legacy. Abraham passed down the knowledge, love, and worship of GOD to Isaac, and Isaac to Jacob. This was extremely important and so noteworthy that GOD used that to introduce HIMSELF to Moses.
Later on, Judges 2:10 reads, “And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.” I do not know why this next generation did not know the LORD and I am not here to cast blame on the previous generation. I will just say that I do not want this to be said about the future generations of my own family. I am so glad that when my grandfather was gathered to be with the LORD that he did not leave without me knowing the LORD and the work that the LORD had done for him. That is legacy.
Fathers, especially those of you who are believers, there is so much that we are told that we must leave to our children. There is so much that we are told our legacy is supposed to contain. I am not here to argue against those other things. However, I believe that the most important part of our legacy is that your GOD becomes the GOD of your children and the GOD of their children.
Grace and peace.
