Note: Early this week we attended a family reunion in Nebraska. Today's message is a bit more personal than most but we hope to stimulate you to wholesome thinking (2 Peter 3:1) as you apply it to your own family heritage.

Message summary: Today we consider the brevity of mortal life and the vital importance of keeping the main thing (living for Christ) the main thing.

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"Generations come and generations go" (Ecclesiastes 1:4).

Yesterday we returned from the 51st annual Steincross family reunion in Nebraska City, Nebraska. Steincross is the last name of my (Stephen's) maternal grandpa. His German immigrant father, Godfrey Wilhelm Steinkraus named him George Washington after our first president. And somehow Steinkraus got Americanized to Steincross.

He and my grandma had seven girls, including my Mom second to the youngest, and two boys. (One son, Fern Altus, died in infancy and a daughter, Evelyn, died at 11 years. They were always counted and their names acknowledged then and still now at our reunions.) That generation is all gone now but the Steincross grandchildren (my generation) and their families still gather annually for a reunion.

These gatherings always bring back childhood memories of the times spent with my MaMa and PaPa (as we called my grandparents), my aunts and uncles and sixteen cousins. Back then we met in tiny Harwood, Missouri. We didn’t call it a reunion but all got together and enjoyed laughing whether during a board game, the children playing on the farm or family stories being shared. Of course our fondest memories are the homemade food around the big farm table as we talked together with our family members that were scattered around the country (mostly Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma).

The farm was homesteaded in 1869 by my great grandfather, a first generation German immigrant. The old Steincross farmhouse was built and my grandpa was born there in 1882. The farm was in the Steincross family for over 100 years. Before my uncle passed away the farm received the designation, "Centennial Farm". I see it's still there on the latest Google map so my ancestors built it well!

Interestingly, a lot of Amish have moved into that area in recent years. Uncle Gentry and Aunt Dora lived in the farmhouse all through my childhood and early adult years. I have many childhood memories of this farm along with the small, white frame house in the tiny town of Harwood about a mile away that my grandparents lived in.

In my late teens MaMa and PaPa died and their children (Mom's generation) held the first reunion in 1975 to keep the family ties, since by that time relatives had scattered all over the country. Of course, now 51 years later, that entire generation has passed on, but we grandchildren keep it going, although we are thinning out now. Only seven of us were at this year's reunion.

Interestingly, Brooksyne was at that first 1975 reunion even before we got married the following year!

Indeed, "generations come and generations go". Now the little ones running around at the reunion are MaMa and PaPa’s great, great grandchildren and even some great, great, great grandchildren. Currently, my generation is the oldest with Mazie, my 88 year old cousin being the oldest. Five of my sixteen cousins have passed on.

When we’re young we feel somewhat immortal without even realizing it, don't we! But we are not immortal and our mortal life* so quickly passes. You either know what I mean or you soon will as the years progress.

Reunions are a reminder of how temporary life really is, how fast it goes by and the need to place a focus on what really matters. Today I encourage you to examine both your roots ("generations come") and your destination ("generations go"). Use my musings as a stimulus for your own musings.

"Generations come and generations go". You have come and you are most certainly going. The vital question for all of us is "Where are you going" and "Are you ready to go there"?

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13.

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber