Legacy Part Two: Begat...

So with all of these thoughts about legacy dancing around in my head, I picked up my Bible yesterday morning and started reading Numbers 26.

In this chapter we find Moses and Eleazar, Aaron's son, taking a census of the Israelite people. This is the second census since the Exodus as now all of the original generation had passed away and this new generation was poised to possess the promised land.

There were several things that stood out in this chapter to me. Like that the tribe of Judah had almost double the amount of people as most of the other tribes. Or that this guy Zelophehad named one of his daughters probably the worst Bible name ever: Hoglah!

But the thing that compelled me the most was just the vastness of how many people comprised the nation of Israel at that time: over 600,000 men, not including the tribe of Levi, women, or children.

That's a lot of people to take on a 40 year camping trip!

And as I think about all of the struggling and striving and praying and working that goes into my life and my pursuit of God and my desire to do the best for my family, it struck me how each of these people did the same thing. Add to that the fact that each of these people were a part of one of the greatest movements of God in history, it makes it kind of ironic that many of them never even got their name mentioned. And for a lot who did, it was only once on one page.

Yet each of those lives were important and valuable to God. He heard every one of their prayers. He made and cared for each of their children. He had desires and wants for their lives. He delighted in placing them in the midst of this part of His great story.

Tomorrow, I'll post about what happened to Hoglah and her sisters, but for today, let's just be humbled by the fact that our lives are so small compared with God's story and yet be awed by the fact that He takes such care in our individual life.

God bless.