What it Means to be a Covenant People

I just spent some time in my office with Jim, our director of Student ministries. We spoke about some of the families in our church.  We talked about how to serve you best by building good programs that will help you teach your children. Most importantly, we prayed for you as you lead your children to your faith.

It is not an easy task, but it is quite possibly the highest and holiest calling.

This week, I have both a funeral and a wedding to participate in. I am reminded of just how short life is and yet how full of blessing and wonder all at the same time.  There is no better way to understand these two things together than to understand what it means to be a covenant people.  People who have a long tradition of being carried by their God.

Andrew Peterson sings a song that fully elaborates on this, and even has some special lines for those of us living out the covenant here in the upper plains.

Please listen, and read the lyrics (along with my commentary) below.

God of my fathers
Huddled in the harbor
Every man an ocean from his home
Their captors could not keep them
When they heard the drums of freedom
The dream of a kingdom
In a land they’ve never known

God of my fathers
Strangers in this country
Pilgrims on these dusty roads
Across the great plains
In the bellies of the steel trains
To stake a new claim
In that wilderness of hope

(these verses tell our story of the children of immigrants to America.  This is especially powerful here in ND where so many people know these stories well. But these lines also remind us of our story as Children of the Exodus from Egypt)

And like my fathers I am looking for a home
I’m looking for a home beyond the sea
So be my God and guide me
Till I lie beneath these hills
Then let the great God of my fathers
Be the great God of my children still

(It is interesting to remember that we are still looking for a home.  This reminds us that while America may be a nice place to live, it is not our ultimate destination.  There remains something better for us) 

God of my grandfathers
Gone these many years now
I guess they’re shining like the sun
And I envision them
Grinning at the finish
And they smile and they smile
‘Cause they love to see me run

(we are carrying on the tradition of those who went before.  Walking in the faith of the gospel, and teaching our children)

And like my fathers I am looking for a home
I’m looking for a home beyond the sea
So be my God and guide me
Till I lie beneath these hills

(we will one day, you know?)
And let the great God of my fathers
Be the great God of my children still

(“be the great God of my children still” – it doesn’t stop with us, the covenant continues long after we are “beneath these hills”)

So, now we’re counting stars and counting sand
Little feet and little hands
We’re counting joys

(God’s promise to Abraham included the promise that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the beach.  This song reminds us that our children are the fulfillment – and inheritors – of that promise) 
We pray you’ll know them
As you knew us when you wove us
As you hold us
Hold them, please hold them.

(David in his Psalms of praise reminds us that God knew us in the womb.  Here we are asking the same for our children.)

Like their father, they are looking for a home
Looking for a home beyond the sea
So be their God and guide them
Till they lie beneath these hills 

(All of our experiences we have of trusting in Christ, and struggling with pain and doubt and yet raising another generation; our children will have also)

And let the great God of their father
Be the great God of their children
Let the great God of my fathers
Be the great God of my children still.

(We pray and work and hope and struggle that this same God we hold onto -as he holds onto us- will do the same for our children.)

I pray that this truth becomes powerful and helps shape our families into people who extend and grow the Covenant, leaving it in the hands of those even more prepared than ourselves.