Loving Our Future Generation

How can we love our grandchildren and great grandchildren when they have not been born yet? How can we care and cultivate their life in God before their existence on earth is a reality?

I love the study, Walking with God in the Desert, by Ray Vander Laan. Ray describes different trees that grow in the desert and one in particular that he points out is the tamarisk tree. This is a slow growing tree that must be planted, cared for and cultivated unlike other trees that grow in the desert. The one who plants the tree will never experience its shade or the resources it has to offer because of the slowness of its growth. However, future generations will enjoy all this tamarisk tree provides.

Abraham not only had great faith in God but he also had a great love for the future generations he was promised by God. These generations he never knew, but he loved them by his present actions. He planted and cultivated a tamarisk tree in the land that God promised would belong to his family of future generations. What love! He did not benefit from this cultivation, yet he gained such satisfaction in knowing that God would fulfill His promise of provision to his family to come.

Ray points out the importance of loving our future family to come as well. He describes the experience and benefit of wandering in the desert with Moses and the Israelite nation after God brought them out of Egypt. Ray says this,

“After the Israelites rebelled in the desert, God disciplined them by forbidding them to enter the Promised Land at that time. He also kept them in the desert until everyone twenty years old or older had died. Certainly that generation of God’s people failed often, but they spent up to forty years accomplishing something they would never enjoy the fruit of – training their children and their grandchildren in the ways of the Lord. Their lives focused on those who would follow them, and God blessed their efforts! In effect, their children were their tamarisk tree!”  

This helps us see our children in a different light – they are our tamarisk tree as well. So, back to our original question, “How can we love our unborn grandchildren and great grandchildren?” By loving our children and teaching them to love the Lord and follow Him all the days of their life. If they are following God, they will be able to give the faith they have to their children, and so on. In this process our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren provide shade for the burned, nourishment for the hungry, water for the thirsty, healing for the hurting, and so on. Our duty today is to cultivate our tamarisk tree(s)!

“Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and constantly loves those who love him and obey his commands” (Deuteronomy 7:9).