Legacy 3

             But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep His covenant and remember His precepts to do them. (Psalm 103:17)

          What these verses, together with the verses from the last two days is that God is leaving a legacy. But the legacy God gives is not the sort of legacy given to Trust Fund Babies. It is not a legacy that produces people who are shallow, entitled, narcissistic, and nihilistic. Instead, it is meant to teach us to love God and other people properly. While some will disagree because they don’t understand what the idea entails, it is meant to make us more like God, not less.

          And that may give us the clues we need. Leaving a legacy is about lovingkindness, not only to the immediate recipient but also to those around and after. Your lovingkindness to your child is wasted if it doesn’t build into that child the capacity to give lovingkindness to someone else. God doesn’t show us lovingkindness just to make us happy. He shows it so that we develop the capacity to show lovingkindness to others. And part of that is His willingness to suffer because that’s the way lovingkindness is.

          Throughout Scripture, we find verses that describe God Himself as our delight and our reward. This suggests that God’s legacy to us is God, and at least in some sense, our legacy to others is ourselves. There’s a story about a boy who gave his teacher a fish. When she mentioned that the river was a long way away,  he said that the walk was part of the gift. Dallas Willard said, “The most important thing in your life is not what you do, but who you become.” Elsewhere, he says, “The main thing God gets out of your life is not the achievements you accomplish. It's the person you become.” In a sense, it might be said that we give the legacy of who we become to God. It isn’t that God needs us the way we need Him, but in our relationship with Him, just as He gives us Himself, we can give Him ourselves. In fact, if we fail to give our whole selves or our best selves, we are failing to build or give a legacy.