Time Traveling from the Latest to the Greatest Generation

On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.' (Exod 13:8 NIV)

I had one of those time travel moments recently that form part of life as a pastor. No, Scotty didn’t beam me up for a ride on the Enterprise and I haven’t passed through any time portals, at least not lately. But I did cover the distance from the Greatest Generation to the Latest Generation (1942-2010) in less than twenty-four hours. And I came away with a sense of how difficult and how important it is to transmit the virtues of the one to the other. I guess I should explain.

I spent an hour or so one afternoon with Rich Crum who, at 93, is our church’s oldest member. Rich was born in Kansas in 1917. He went to war in 1942 as part of the US Strategic Bomber Service, serving in Europe till war’s end. Listening to Rich talk about that era brought all of the danger and sacrifice, the courage and faith of that generation back to vivid life. The men and women of his time not only won that war, they built the America that you and I know today. They understand sacrifice and service and the cost of freedom better than most people now living in the USA.

Flash forward to 7:30 AM the following morning. I stood with about forty-five students and adults around the flag pole in front of the Middle School for the annual See You At The Pole ceremony. We joined with millions of students across America who met that day to pray for their schools and their country. My job was to offer a 9-11 remembrance. Middle Schoolers are 6th thru 8th grade students, 11 to 13 years of age. None of them were older than four years of age when the towers fell on 9-11. Rich's war is ancient history to them. That’s when the time warp hit me. How can we, who live in the present, possibly transmit to these kids the gravity of the moment, the enormity of the evil we faced on that fateful day and give them the virtues they will need to face the enemies of freedom in their own generation?

Scripture gives us the answer. After God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt he gave them - through Moses - a number of instructions on how to keep the memory of those great events alive. He gave them the Passover, and other colorful ceremonies of remembrance. He gave them the law. And he gave them the tabernacle, with all of its forms of worship. Essentially, the Israelites were to model the great truths of their faith and history; mentor their children in its virtues; and memorialize the extraordinary events of the past. In this way each new generation would have a vital link, a time portal through which the ancients could travel forward in imagination and pass on the virtues that strengthen the foundations of freedom.

Let’s you and I commit to keep the portal open. The next generation is going to need it.