On Being A 'Somebody'

This comes from Justin Taylor's blog where he interviews Dr. Gerald Bray about some basic questions to ask when interpreting Scripture. Taylor asks how the genealogies of 1 Chronicles can be helpful to us. I find Bray's answer very encouraging.

'They say that most of us are nobodies from the world’s point of view. We live and die in a long chain of humanity but there is not much that anyone will remember of us as individuals. At the same time, without us, future generations will not be born and the legacy of the past will not be preserved. We are part of a great cloud of witnesses, a long chain of faithful people who have lived for God in the place where he put them. Even if we know little about them we owe them a great debt of gratitude for their loyalty and perseverance when they had little or nothing to gain from it or to show for it.'

I think that I was trained to expect that I would become a 'somebody' who would be noticed and remembered. I'm not. And Bray's comments on 1 Chronicles are more ammunition to help my soul understand that and rejoice in it.