Irish Proverb: A good beginning is half the work!

Today is Tuesday, March 17, 2009 and many across our country will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Whether or not I am sure about being descended from a Scotch-Irish background depends upon the facts as we know them. Scotch-Irish is a term typically applied in America to refer to those immigrants who were Protestants that came over from Ireland but also had roots in Scotland. One lady who has done more on my dad’s family name than I have tends to believe my dad’s family to be of English origin, perhaps from Great Britain. My mom’s dad has had his lineage generally connected to the Scotch-Irish identity but this has not been, to my knowledge, completely researched and proven. We do know that both of these lineages, maternal and fraternal, came here from English speaking origins and the names tend to support a reasonable connection to the Scotch-Irish claim. At any rate, we will not be drinking any green beer or partying to celebrate this particular day while we are aware that many others will.

Speaking of lineages, we can with certainty know we are all children of Adam and Eve and by default, Noah. The Europeans are typically identified with Noah’s son, Japheth, therefore, he would be the progenitor of our family lines. My inclination would cause me to put much more stock in the biblical outline of how peoples became who they are and how they populated certain areas of the globe. There’s a profound inspired insight given by the Apostle Paul in a sermon he preached to a very learned audience in Athens, Greece. In Acts 17, we read these words: 22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

If I understand this passage correctly it means God arranged for people to be where they are at particular times and places for the purpose of them being able to respond to His calling. Therefore, we may not be able to know all about our particular ancestors but we can know that we are already known of by God and He has provided a way for us to know Him in a Father child relationship. That way is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. According to the Scriptures, once we are connected into His family we become an heir and joint heir with Christ. That’s eternally more important than being able to establish your country of origin and it’s the greatest knowledge we can ever know or hope to know. Now that gives us a day to celebrate and in fact we do that each week on what we call the Lord’s Day Sunday because it is the commemoration of His resurrection from the dead which provides us with the hope we have in Him. Amen. Have a great St. Patrick’s Day and also a day to thank God for His provision to us all! …More later.