The Family Tree

There was one school project that never got any complaints from my children.
It was a project that they could only complete halfway.
They had an excuse for not finishing the other half.
They were not able to do so.

It was not laziness.
It was not lack of effort.
It simply could not be done.
The other half was unknown.

The project was the infamous Family Tree project.
My children could only complete their dad’s side of the tree.
Their mom’s side was a mystery.
Their mom was adopted.

Their classmates looked at their finished assignment longingly.
Only half the work needed to be done.
It was explained and accepted, this is all I could complete.
We only had half of a family tree.

My children asked me through the years if I ever wanted to know my side of the tree.
After my mother died, I did think about searching.
However, back then, the adoption records were sealed.
There was my answer.

By the time the records were unsealed, it didn’t matter.
I was married and beginning a family of my own.
There was always a sense of incompleteness, however.
Even today if someone tells me how much I look like someone, I wonder.

Not knowing my own family tree became less of an issue when I belonged to another.
God has been so gracious to me.
I felt as if my personal family tree began when I was married and had children of my own.
I may not know my tree when it was a sapling, but I know it now and I am so grateful.

There is another Tree to which I belong.
The Tree that is the family of Christ.
The brothers and sisters around the world who know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
This is my extended family, the one which I will enjoy throughout eternity.

The Tree is Christ.
I am simply one of the branches.
I desire to stay connected to Him.
Apart from Him, I can do nothing. (John 15:5)

I thought about the Family Tree as I was reading my Bible.

I was beginning to read the gospel of Matthew.
I was struck by the genealogy of Jesus.
Matthew traces Jesus’ family tree back to Abraham to show His Jewishness.
Luke traces Jesus’ family tree back to Adam to show His humanity.

It was Matthew’s genealogy I was reading.
There are quite a few things that are incredibly interesting about it.
Usually women are not included in genealogies.
However, Matthew includes four women in Jesus’ family tree.

There is Tamar, a Gentile, who bore illegitimate twins by her father-in-law.
There is Rahab, a Gentile who was a former prostitute.
There is Ruth, a pagan Gentile, who came to know God through her mother-in-law.
There is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, who committed adultery with King David.

Four somewhat unsavory women are in the lineage of Jesus.
And we doubt that this person or that person can ever come to Christ.
We may be embarrassed about a few branches in our own family tree.
However, God is in the habit of redemption.

A friend of mine, who is a pastor in Tennessee, brought clarity to the issue of trees.
Specifically, the Tree who is Jesus.
We don’t think much about being part of Jesus’ Tree.
But we should, if we are believers in our Lord Jesus.

My pastor friend never forgot a lesson taught by one of his seminary professors.
Jesus Christ is the Tree.
Other faiths may claim to have the Tree, but they have planted so many shrubs around it.
It is difficult to see the central Tree in the midst of the overgrowth.

Many tend to put their faith in the shrubs that are the church rather than in Christ.
Others tend to put their faith in their own obedience rather than Christ’s obedience.
We look to the shrubs to determine who we are.
We fail to look at the Tree.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1)

We, who follow Jesus, are like a tree planted by streams of water.
A tree that flourishes and prospers, fed by streams of Living Water.
The Tree nourishes us.
The Tree protects us.

We should not obscure the Tree.
We should not keep others from approaching the Tree.
We must point the way to the Tree.
We have roots that go down deep.

We have a Family Tree.
It is a precious Tree to which we belong if we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
It is not half of a tree.
It is complete in Him.

Point others to the Tree that is Christ.
Do not obscure their line of vision.
You are a planting of the Lord.
You are not to be a shrub that gets in the way.