Who Do You Belong To?

We recently added a shelf on a wall in the basement. I wanted to display some of the old pictures we had resting in boxes in the storage room. The shelf hung empty for a couple of weeks before I attempted to fill it with history. John helped me by searching through the "Stewart" box while I looked through the "Springer"/"Hilsabeck" box. As one would expect, it took time as we discovered old things that reminded us of a memory or surprised us as we didn't remember seeing it before.

I selected pictures of my parents, grandparents and even my great-grandparents and John did the same. The shelf (only partially shown above) reminds us where we came from and who we belonged to. My father was an only child so we found several infant and childhood portraits of him, while John's father, the only son with five sisters had only a few pictures as the youngest child.

"For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son--both alike belong to me...He follows my decrees and faithfully keeps my laws. That man is righteous; he will surely live, declares the Sovereign Lord," (Ezekiel 18:4, 9 NIV).

What a blessing it is to know that God's plan involves all generations. He desires for them all to belong to Him together. We can long to be reunited with those who have gone ahead, and be confident that there will be a reunion of those who believe when they follow us to heaven. It is my deepest prayer that all of my children and grandchildren will get to know their ancestors in heaven. What a day of belonging and rejoicing that will be!