Legacy,

 

We have all heard the word “legacy” and it is used to describe various things or people.  Webster’s Dictionary says:

1.      Something that is willed to someone by a person who has died.

2.      Something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.

3.      A candidate for membership in an organization who is given special status because of a familial relationship to a member.

 

All of these are focused on something given or received, whether it is money, property, membership sponsorship.  A legacy can also be the person who came before, who left the legacy behind.

 

If you have read any of previous writings, you have seen how I sometimes draw on songs that have words or thoughts that incorporate into them.  This is one of those:  Randy Travis, the country singer, titled “Three Wooden Crosses”, which was released in 2002 and rose to number one.  This is part of the chorus:

“It’s not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it’s what you leave behind you when you go.”

 

Jesus Christ came into the world like the rest of us as a newborn baby.  The last three years of the 33 he was here formed his ministry.  When he left and returned to his father in heaven, he left behind a fledgling legacy, a small movement with the 12 members.  These 12 men took this legacy and carried it out into the whole world, named after its founder, Christianity.

 

Over the next 20 centuries, it grew into a movement that spanned the entire world.  It grew and shrunk, its members were glorified and persecuted, but his legacy lives on and continues to grow.  There are variations of it, but the one bottom line is they all praise and glorify Jesus Christ.

 

Enough of history.   Everyone is a candidate for membership.  We are all related to Jesus Christ, we all have the same father.  That gives us all that special status.  Those of us who are his followers, Christians all, come from all walks of life, every ethnic group.  Some of us practice our belief daily, some only weekly, and some have lapsed in following his legacy.  He welcomes all of us regardless of our level of dedication.  He loves us all.

 

Go back and read that part of Randy Travis’ song.  You are going to leave your legacy to those who come after you.  What is that going to be?  Is it something that will grow his legacy even more?  Like the last line goes, “It’s what you leave behind you when you go.”

 

What are you going to leave behind, what will be your legacy?