Ancestry 101
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone, Ephesians 2: 19, 20
Back in 2011, Jacquelynne was invited to attend the ceremony commemorating the 350th anniversary of the settlement of Block Island (off the coast of Rhode Island) by colonial settlers (her folks). She agreed to take me with her provided I kept a low profile. This was intended so that it should not become known to celebrants that I was actually a native Tennessean. We could have pulled it off too – except for the hurricane that swept the East Coast about that time. We had purchased non-refundable ferry tickets intended to whisk us to and from the festivities. Apparently, the crew of that vessel (not wishing to die at sea) refused, on those scant grounds, to transport us to our pre-paid destination. The inhabitants of Block Island did the whole thing without us! Jacquelynne sulked a bit. I got over it pretty quickly since, had my ancestry been discovered, it might not have been that pleasant for me anyway.
One of the downside takeaways was that for months afterward I thought I sensed a slight alteration in her regard for me. I thought that once, when she supposed that I was not paying attention, looked at me and mouthed the word “migrant”!
Since that time, I have made a mild recovery. I began to poke around related to my ancestry and discovered that my people came to Tennessee during the Civil War as Union soldiers. That helped me a bit. Last week, when we were housebound by light snow (it doesn’t take much to keep old people indoors) we decided to examine about 25 pounds of documentation created by some of my relatives related to my family ancestry. The fruit of that labor yielded, among other things, the fact that my people purchased an original Pennsylvania land grant directly from William Penn. I am restored! I may again drive the family car!
As we would take the time to look around – perhaps any afternoon on some busy street corner or even on a Sunday morning in church – we would see, without exception, migrants. No distinction can be made among us related to origin. We have each found our way here from Eden: We are all, in a sense, strangers and aliens! That fact is, for those who are in Christ, a really good thing!
This world will not be the final abode for those that are His. We are all mere pilgrims here. Not one molecule of those who are members of the household of God will remain in this place. We will then, at last, no longer be migrants. We will be home!
George Moore
Elder Emeritus
