Have you ever met someone and thought they looked and acted familiarly only to find out years later that they are a 3rd cousin? Or have a close friend tell you they’d met someone who talked and used the same mannerisms that you use, only to find out the person was your first cousin who you had never met?
That’s happened to me and each time it has made me realise how much of our behaviour is pre-recorded for us in our DNA.
One of my daughters has a penchant for spreading butter thickly on her bread and today has discovered that this is a result of her Danish forebears. (The Danes have a word, ‘tandsmør’, which means “tooth butter”. It refers to buttering your bread so generously that when you bite into it you leave your teeth marks behind).
When we are born again and God becomes our Father, all that was written in our DNA changes. The inherited pains and struggles, the sins of our forebears, the habits of past generations, all change as we are shaped by the Holy Spirit into the image of our Saviour. All of the unloveliness that lurks in our genetic structure is gradually transformed as we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and we start to look like our heavenly Father.
“And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18 Amp. Bib).
Because of what Jesus did in going to the cross carrying our sins and afflictions, we have been welcomed into the family of God. We have become Jesus’ offspring. We are no longer defined by our earthly parents.
“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labour of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:10-11 NKJV).
We have a new parentage and a new everlasting name to go with it!
“Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off” (Isa. 56:5 NKJV).
So don’t lament your past and who your parents were. Don’t despair for bad experiences in your life. In Jesus all things have been made new.
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