Children are Heritage from the Lord

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Psalm 127:3 tells us that children are a heritage from God. That is to say that they are a special kind of gift. They are special in many, many ways. They are special because we love to hold them, to teach them, and to share in their delight as they experience new things. They are special because they love us, look up to us, and when they are little, value us with a beautiful and innocent kind of awe. But they have a specialness that is far greater than any of those things. They are a heritage in the same way that your family history is.

We call our family history a heritage because it is a cultural gift that was created by those members of our family who came before us. It is expected that we will add to that heritage, own it, preserve it, make it better, and pass it on to the next generation. Children are a heritage in the very same way. It is God's way of preserving our history, and giving us an opportunity to pay cultural dividends forward. That means that our gift is also a great responsibility.

Here at Fellowship Church, we take that responsibility seriously. As a church we want to help our families preserve and develop that heritage. We also want to help those families in our communities who don't belong to Fellowship Church do the same thing. We know that by running a VBS program like we just finished, that we are impacting the larger High Springs and Alachua communities. We know that we will be reinforcing important values for those children who already have Christ in their homes. We also know that those children who may not have Christ in their homes will be exposed to the most important gift they could ever have. And maybe most significantly, we know that in that group of children who came, there might be someone who will be come a pastor, teacher, missionary or future church leader, and they will both sharpen and expand the heritage. Hopefully, everyone will be equipped to share what they've learned.

All of this means that the Kingdom of God will be advanced because people in Fellowship Church have given of their time and their talents. Thank you to every single person involved in the effort.