Truth & Beauty:The Gift of Family

“Don’t forget the things your eyes have seen…teach
them to your children and to their children after them.”
Deuteronomy 4:9 (NIV)

I read a lovely piece of writing last week while we were on vacation at the beach with our family. Lara D’entremont, a young author, wife, and Mama to three preschoolers, encouraged Christian authors to write with both truth and beauty. Here are just a few of her thoughtful insights:

“Writing takes time and tending…take the time to learn how to write not just truth and not just beauty, but the two together.”

“Having learned the truth from God’s Word, our duty as writers is to learn how to tell it beautifully. Truth is important, but that doesn’t mean our writing should be boring, bland, and monotone.”

“Through beautiful writing, we take the truths that the average person may consider boring, unimportant, and lackluster and compel them to come and learn more.”

(A good writer is)…”someone who brings truth and beauty together in the written word.”

As a women’s Bible study leader and longtime student of God’s Word, I’m always challenged with the Apostle Paul’s words to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesian 4:15 NIV, especially as I teach or counsel younger women. Years ago, I was also struck by John Stott’s reminder that “truth and love should always be married and never divorced.” Honestly, however, I really hadn’t considered the importance of combining both truth and beauty.

Last week Bruce and I enjoyed a busy week’s vacation with our daughter and her family. Our time together provided plenty of teaching, learning, and listening opportunities with our granddaughters. Spending time with them led to opportunities for pointing them to Him as we shared a few days of life and family stories together across three generations. One of my favorite moments was when our youngest granddaughter, 4-year-old Mary Clayton, told me as she spread her pink blanket across her beloved Simba, “Mia, when I grow up I want to be a Mommy!”

One evening as Bruce and I enjoyed a beautiful beach sunset, he softly said, “There’s something beautiful in God’s gift of family across generations.”

The last few weeks have been filled with various aspects of family life. Four generations of extended Evans family members recently gathered at a hotel in Birmingham to reconnect and remember their shared family history. Bruce’s cousins traveled from New York, Chicago, Gainesville, Memphis, New Orleans, and various places in between to share memories, grandkids, meals, and a few days of family fun. Our Evans reunion ages ranged from 6 months to 95 years with some 50 family members in attendance.

Last week my younger cousin Mike died after a brief struggle with an aggressive cancer. Almost immediately eight cousins began a group text to coordinate food and memorial service details for Mike’s family. Bruce’s words, “There’s something beautiful in God’s gift of family” quickly came to my mind and heart. Separated by both geography and years, our strong family ties held firm in our collective grief.

The family is God’s Divine Design and primary vehicle for the transfer of truth one generation to the next. Living in a fallen world, life and family can often be messy, but God’s design and his good gift of family isn’t just truth (Genesis 1:27-28), it’s beautiful. The effective transfer of truth one generation to another is always intentional and relational. Being intentional means that we get the message- Who God is and what he has done- out of our mouths. Being relational means that we earn the right to be heard.

An Evans’ ancestor’s baby shoes circa 1913

The Psalmist Asaph’s words from Psalm 78 provide much needed wisdom and instruction for us:

We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power and the wonders he has done…
he commanded our forefathers to teach their children
so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
Then put their trust in God and not forget his deeds, but keep his commands.
(Psalm 78:4-7)

Generation to generation, there’s something beautiful in God’s gift of family.