Babies, Babies, Babies

During this last month or so around American Vision we have experienced greater than average blessing in that three babies have been born to staff members, the third coming just a few days ago. All is fine, all are healthy, and everyone rests thankful (though, perhaps, “rests” is not the best word to use when newborns are involved). In addition, this year in general has provided the same blessing to my family, with our second son coming last February. As well, our closest friends from the church we attended in Pennsylvania (while in seminary) just delivered their first. This mini-cornucopia adds a measure of “that’s why we do what we do” at American Vision: it’s greatly about the future, the children, their education, the world and worldview they are born into.

The blessings of this year have come in contrast to last year, in which nearly everyone I know buried a friend or loved one, in some cases even in tragic circumstances. Last year was abysmal. One of my former pastors attests that it was by far his toughest year as a pastor dealing with loss, grief, sin, and other maladies. So in reprieve and reversal of former times the recent abundance of new life springs a smile to start, as well as a symbol of the potential of God’s Kingdom growing through covenant children. New life, growth, blessing, prosperity, and servanthood dominion: all the rewards of covenant faithfulness.

The Issue of Legacy

One of the pillars of American Vision’s ministry is the idea of legacy: what are we imparting to the next generation? This got me meditating on the idea of “legacy.” What does the word mean, after all?

First, we commonly use the word to refer to “that which we leave behind after die.” A few years ago I preached at the memorial service of my maternal grandfather. He was the first of my grandparents to pass on. I had written material prepared, but as I stepped into the pulpit I noticed something that stirred me to give an impromptu introduction. As I looked out over a hundred or more cousins, friends, etc., I realized I had not seen many of them since I was a child. And now we were, many of us, showing up with children of our own. There is a cycle of nature and life—described vividly by Solomon in Ecclesiastes—that we all experience. Old things pass away, new things come, and there is a time for it all.

In the midst of all the natural grief of a funeral, a burden is added that we don’t often think about. I was close to my grandpa and I looked up to him. For a part of my life he was the father figure. He taught me many things about growing up and being a man that I still think about constantly today (e.g., “The right tools will expedite any job”). When we lose these “old things” that stood as meaningful, lasting examples of life, we ourselves are left as the ones responsible for passing on a good (and even better) example to the next generations. There is no more “looking up to,” as far as human examples go, but looking down to your children and “being looked up to.”

This is to me the essence of conservatism (which is not primarily a political label), and it is a Biblical way of life: to hold fast to that which is good (1 Thess. 5:21), and to imPart 1t to the younger generations (Deut. 6:7; Eph. 6:5). A Biblical worldview will have a high view of children, of education, and of faithfulness into the future. Any worldview that tends toward pessimism in any of these areas is misreading the larger message of Scripture.

Secondly, there is an even deeper theological way we can understand the word. Toward this end I often look to the etymology of a word in order to help discern its most primal meaning.1 In this case it is very instructive. “Legacy” comes from the Latin legatus or legare (in verb form), meaning “legal representative,” or “ambassador.” From 1154 on, the officers sent out to represent the Pope were called “legates,” meaning that they represented the legal authority of the Pope. It was the murder of the Pope’s legate, Peter de Castelnau, in 1208 that precipitated the “Albigensian Crusade,” the conquest of the Cathars (a crusade aimed against violent insurgent heretics rather than invading Muslims). The legal aspect of representation is apparent: the attack on the legate was legally an attack on the person of the Pope.

The doctrine of representation is highly important in the Bible. Adam represented all of humanity in the Fall, and Christ represents all believers in His work of redemption (Rom 5:12–21). They were each covenant heads. Following the covenant headship of Christ, “we are ambassadors of Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:20). The idea that we are in some sense God’s representatives in this world gives added emphasis to the fact that we are created in God’s image: in the light of Christ’s redemption we must now live up to it.

The idea of legal representation shows up explicitly in the God’s law: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth” (Ex. 20:4). By worshipping a false representative of God, idolatry is an attack on God Himself. In the covenantal structure of the Decalogue,2 the idea arises as well in the Seventh Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (Ex. 20:14). Since man and wife become one in marriage, each of them represents the whole (and thus each has legal authority over the other’s body before God—1 Cor. 7:2–4). Adultery is the substitution of a false representative in the marriage, and thus is an attack on the oath-bound couple before God. The fact that both commandments carry an analogous idea is expressed all through the Bible as idolatry is always denounced as harlotry on the part of God’s people (for just one example, see Jeremiah 3).

How does this relate to our common sense use of the word “legacy” as that which we leave to the future. It is this: As we represent God in this world, our legacy is how the next generation represents us in the same endeavor. They are, to some degree, our report card in the cultural mandate (Gen. 1:28) and the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20). This should not be understood too absolutely, for the next generation will be judged on their own relationship with God, not on their representation of us. But the family-children relationship is one of inheritance in terms of wealth: spiritual, mental, and physical. This means that what we pass on is vital. The question, What are you giving your children? includes, What are you teaching your children? How are you training your children? (And, in fact, for some obstinate families, the question must be added, Are you trying to have children?!).3 It includes a view, not toward a “gloom-and-doom” decline of civilization, but of purposeful planning toward the redemption of civilization one family at a time. Such an anticipatory worldview works as God’s faithful representative in the earth: creating, raising, and training other representatives of God in the earth. This work will be steady, consistent, slow, gradual, arduous, yet ever faithful to the One we represent.

The product will, in hope, be a faithful representation of our service to God and of the God we serve. There is the possibility that later generations will, even in the face of truth and prosperity, apostasize; this will not necessarily be a reflection on the legacy they received. This is aberration. But, there is one way to almost ensure apostasy, and that is to not train the next generation they way we are commanded to. This is one way to ensure that our legacy will be godless, even if we currently profess the name of God.

As I stood before a hundred or so souls, I said that my grandfather had provided a good example to follow in many ways. Then I challenged all of us to accept the burden: to be such an example to those who depend on us. By engaging the next generation—our babies—with the passion of Christ and the covenant of God can we impart the spirituality and law that the progress of the human race requires.

I now have two babies, and am hoping for more. But mine is not a naive vision. I know it is not so simple. It demands a lot of work and faces many and large obstacles. Frankly, there is an element of it that scares me to death. But I step into it in faith, trusting the help of others who have been there (their legacy), the teaching of faithful elders in the Church; trusting that what God has sent us to do He will supply for us to endure and finish; and above all, trusting the Word of God. That will be my legacy, and I will teach my children to make it theirs, too.