What is a family? It is a perpetual relay of truth! Watch the children as you organize a relay race, a running contest in which lines of children wait as one from each line runs a distance and returns to hand the baton to a team member. Back and forth they run and pass the baton. Relay RaceIf one drops it, there is a forfeit of returning to the starting place. What excitement is generated, as those finished (or waiting for their turn) watch to see how soon the baton will come back, groan when it is dropped, cheer when someone falls and skins a knee and then pops up bravely to run on again. This is a relay race in which it matters whether one person gets there, because if the baton is not handed on, the next person can't start on his or her part of the course.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
There is meant to be help given in the race, from one to another, as we are placed in different combinations together. But in this particular understanding of the race spoken of in Hebrews, there are three aspects to be thought about seriously. First, it is a race in which others have already taken part and are now finished. Jesus Himself finished His race, and His was the supreme one of continuing to the cross in spite of the shame and suffering of it all, to finally sit down at the right hand of God. Had Jesus not completed His race, none of us would be in it at all, neither those who looked forward to the Messiah, nor those who have accepted Him as Saviour since He came in the flesh. However, others have also run and have finished - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Jonah, Joel, Amos, Peter, Paul, John and the people in the generations of the last two thousand years. These are the "cloud of witnesses" who are watching to see what will happen.
Second, in the understanding of these verses, we need to recognize the fact that we have special help ready for the asking. Not only is Jesus watching and already interceding for us, but we are to "look unto Jesus," not with eyes that see His physical form, but with the reality of communication by reading His Word in the Bible. There is this help to be had in the race in a very practical area.
Third, I think we can see the whole race as one in which true truth is to be handed over like the flag in a relay race, from generation to generation. The cloud of witnesses is concerned not just with us as individuals (although we are significant as individuals - to others, as well as to the Lord Himself), but with the next in line. We are responsible for "handing on the flag" and for being very careful not to drop it - or to drop out - because of our responsibility to the next generation.
The primary place for the flag of truth to be handed on is in the family. The truth was meant to be given from generation to generation. Fathers and mothers were to tell sons and daughters. There was supposed to be a perpetual relay of truth without a break. The truth of the existence and the character of God is to be made known to the children and the children's children. We are responsible for our children and for our grandchildren, for our nieces and nephews and our grandnieces and grandnephews. That they may know what? The wonder of who God is, what God has done, what God has said, and what He has meant to those doing the telling.
We hope you've gained from these words from one of the Lord's great servants and writers. If you'd like a copy of this book, you can purchase it at Christianbook.com. Here's the Web address:
http://www.christianbook.com/what-is-a-family/edith-schaeffer/9780801083655/pd/83656
And, if you'd like to read Schaeffer's full article, you can find it here:
http://www.the-highway.com/articleMay03.html
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