Detail and Insignificance

Synopsis     1Chron 2:30-49     11/12/2019 

The chronicler documented the sons of Judah with special care. In this case, the author described the lineage of specific family lines from peoples of southern Judah. 

Detail and Insignificance 

It always strikes me a little strange to recount the names of people memorialized in scripture whose specific stories will never be known.  

The Silent Contribution 

I left the Catholic church when I joined military service. The two occurrences weren’t specifically related. I was seventeen and confused.  

I didn’t return to the faith until I was thirty-seven years old. 

Before I made the decision to return, I began attending the morning mass. I didn’t participate in the Eucharist. Instead, I just sat in the back and observed.  

This was the parish of my birth. Remarkably, the mass hadn’t appreciable changed since I was a middle school altar server. And perhaps more remarkably, neither had the people. Those attending the daily morning mass were mostly people I recognized. Years before, they had been my teachers and the parents of my friends.  

Retired from their labors, they continued to quietly and joyfully live out their faith. They were known only to their friends and families. And that was more than enough. 

So, I’ve come to understand that I, like they, will likely live out my life below the surface of history. For the most part, in a generation or two, they will not be specifically remembered. And in a generation or two, neither will I.  

And yet, their faithfulness created the unmistakable effect of leading me home.  

“But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1Peter 2:9