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Companies like Ancestry, 23 and me, my heritage and family tree all help people search for their ancestors. 

But why do people want to know who their ancestors were? Why is it important to look to the past?

It’s different for everyone. 

I interviewed a young lady yesterday and she said the one person she would want to eat dinner with, dead or alive, would be her grandmother from Jamaica because she never met her. 

She wanted to know more about her culture and heritage.

She wanted to hear stories about her mother’s childhood, learn how to cook Jamaican recipes and get to know her grandmother as a person.

She’s not alone in her desire to know more about her lineage. 

I ask students all the time who has heart disease in their family… a few hands will go up. And then I ask, “How many of you don’t know if you have heart disease in your family?” More hands shoot up.

Certain diseases can be passed down from generation to generation. Some can even be prevented! At UAMS, we have a program called Genetic Counseling. It shows people how genetic factors can affect them or their family. To know your genetic makeup – your family history – could help you tremendously in the future.

Or it could be you find out you are related to someone famous. 

Here’s the deal – genealogy is important! Answers from our past provide details for our future. 

In scripture, genealogy tells us several things.

1. A person’s genealogy would show what family or tribe they belonged to. This was a big deal because the family you belonged to would have different types of inheritances: material items, land or respect. 
2. A person’s genealogy would usually determine who they worshiped. 
3. Jesus’s genealogy proved that he is the Messiah because he is descended from the line of David. 

Genesis five shares about the descendants of Adam, all the way to a guy named Noah. 

You may think, “Oh I’ll skip over this part. It’s just a bunch of names.” But you really should take the time to read through this genealogy because there’s so much packed into these verses!

Have you studied your family history? 

I know through my lineage I have certain traits like my mom, my dad, my grandparents and even further back. In fact, my lineage goes all the way back to Eve. 

Yours does too! 

And you know what we got from her and Adam? Their sin. 

Because of our ancestors, we ALL have sin and are in need of a Savior. 

Thankfully, the Lord chose to love us in our sin and sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our redemption (Romans 5:8). 

We can be proud of our heritage, for we, being children of God, also belong to the Savior of all!

Copyright © 2020 by Yalanda Merrell. No part of this article may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from Lifeword.org.