By Katie Murray
It happened again the other week. I was going about my day with my kids when out of nowhere my mother’s words came out of my mouth. I laughed recounting the event to my mom on the phone later that week: “It’s like you were inside my head telling me what to say!” She responded, “Those weren’t my words; those were your grandmother’s.”
My grandmother, Meemee, has been gone about 10 years now, but I can still bring to mind so much about her. The sound of her voice, the smell of her lotion, the feel of her hands rubbing my back. She died a few months before my oldest was born, so I never got the opportunity to talk to her about becoming a mother. Yet, as evidenced by the words that escaped my mouth the other week, I have (I pray!) inherited some of her maternal wisdom.
Through both nature and nurture, we are all products of generational inheritance. Eye color and back issues. Sports team loyalties and holiday traditions. Much of how we engage with the world has been learned — and at times unlearned — through our relationship to those who preceded us.
The same is true of this place as well, and it’s front of mind as we are making plans for the church’s upcoming 75th anniversary celebration. This community of faith has been shaped and molded by names and faces that have long passed, but whose lived expressions of faith in our Creator have left something for us to carry forward and build upon.
Today is All Saints Day, and we will take time during the service to read aloud the names of those in our congregation who have died within the last year. Women and men whose time among us, whether long or short, left an indelible mark on this community of faith. From musicians to Sunday School teachers, former staff members to those who grew up within these walls, those whose service among us was visible and those who preferred to serve behind the scenes.
Thanks be to God for the lives of these saints, and may their memory move us to live our lives in a way that leaves a rich inheritance of faith for the generations to come.