Were You Made for Such a Time as This?

Queens, princesses, duchesses, and other female royalty around the world are often fascinating to us. For example, Meghan Markle became known as Duchess of Sussex when she married Prince Harry. Since then, we seem to pay special attention to the royals especially of the United Kingdom. Probably, a large part of that is because the Duchess is an American-born woman and is not yet a British citizen as there are many requirements for that to happen and it’s a slow process.

We could think about our own heritage and look back into our ancestry to see where we came from and the history of our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and on and on. We may be surprised or shocked to find out some fascinating facts, especially if we never knew anyone on one side of our family tree or the other.  

A few years ago, my own family tree expanded by a tremendous explosion! Since my biological father passed away during the WWII era, his history was never exposed to me. But suddenly, after being contacted by a supposed first cousin (later verified, of course), twenty-one first cousins were discovered on my father’s family tree that was never known to me previously. To shorten this long story, there was an immediate family reunion that happily lasted for days. And my Google contact list has grown into a garden of delight!

Generations of History

Many people already know their family history, but maybe not. Or not well. It could be great fun to start this project and with so many websites out there to support a search, it isn’t difficult. How many generations back could we discover? Where are our ancestors from? What did they do for a living? And how did our families eventually end up in America where we were born?

These answers could not only be fun to discover but may be quite important to pass on to our children or siblings. It was sad for me to find out there were all these cousins I could have grown up with if only I had known of their existence. Instead, decades melted away with no contact. Don’t let that happen to your family.

Just like the old famous song by Louis Armstrong says, “What a Wonderful World” this could be if we only allow it. And knowing our history is all part of the process to keep it going. Some of us have boxes and boxes of photos lying around the house (yes, millennials, before the 1980s we had photo film that needed to be developed which created a “hard copy” photo to keep). Okay, we were smiling when we said that, so relax, we know it is a digital world now. In fact, we can even take those hard copies and have them turned into a digital video or file folder to keep forever.

Five Keepsakes to Start

What other things can we do to create family keepsakes to pass on? Try these five and then add your own:

A journal for each child

Child’s growth chart (enlarged) for the wall  

Fill a shadow box with old keepsakes from the attic or closet

Start a journal for each child (even grown ones!). Write a weekly letter

Frame that handwritten family recipe from great-grandmother

Create framed pencil/watercolor drawings of the kids

Delicate Parts

After all that activity, be sure to sit and relax and read the one book that contains hundreds of fascinating family stories like a courageous woman named Esther who became a Queen, a female judge named Deborah, and a daughter and beloved mother-in-law named Ruth and Naomi.

It’s one way we will find out that we ourselves were created with loving care and not by accident, but with a purpose. Open the Bible and start with Psalm 139. In verse 13 it says gently, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.” It is so important to see that God, the Creator of all knew each one of us long before we were even born.

It’s our original family history written by our Heavenly Father and the one and only true God who created the entire universe!

“. . .Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14b NLT).