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| Picture taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007t575 |
This is the name given to a television series that helps celebrities trace something of their family history. To make each programme someone has quite a bit of research to do. There is the compilation of the family tree, usually taken back into the early part of the 19th Century. Some of the history of certain individuals within that ancestry map is also researched to provide material of interest for the celebrity as well as the programme. Whilst it can make fascinating viewing and give an insight to the background of different celebrities it also raises the question for each one of us – who do we think we are?
What might be lurking in the dark recesses of our family
history? Is there someone, perhaps a “black sheep” of the family, who might be
discovered and their criminal activities exposed? Perhaps there are traces of
immoral activity that might provide a link between us and some famous person of
Victorian England! Clearly, for the programme to be made there is the
assumption that we all have some interest in where we are from and who our
ancestors were.
It may surprise many to know that the Bible has something to
say about the whole matter of ancestry. A verse in Romans chapter 5 tells us, ‘as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned’. As we are all aware of the aging
process and that this process underlines our mortality, it confirms our link
with our first parents, Adam and Eve. In Adam’s disobedience (sin), we were
made sinners. As sinners, we are all destined to die. The Bible says, ‘the
wages of sin is death’. As a consequence of the so-called theory of evolution
many would mock at the Biblical account of Adam and Eve, we all still face
death. Why?
While the Bible explains the reason – sin – it also gives
humanity hope. It tells of God’s provision of a Saviour to save us from death –
particularly spiritual death, or separation from God forever. God’s Son, Jesus
Christ, bore God’s penalty upon sin that you and I might go free, be forgiven,
cleansed, and made fit for God’s presence in heaven. In the death of Jesus Christ
and His subsequent resurrection there is hope for every man and woman! We might
be in the family of Adam by natural birth. We can become part of the family of
God through faith in Jesus Christ. What about you?
