Dear Descendents

Dear Son, Daughter, or Grandchild. 
This is for you.

I don't know your name yet. I don't know your birthday or your age. I don't know where you live. I don't know whether you're even mine. I don't know whether you are healthy or ill, close or far, biological or adopted, dead or alive. 

I don't know where you live. In a home, in a dorm, on the street, in a jail cell, I don't know. I don't know what our relationship is like. I don't know your face, your full heritage; I don't know your friends, I don't know your father. Small 'f.' 

I don't know your favourite colour, food, movie, book, song, band, animal, sport, or game.

I don't know your school, your interests, your hobbies, your talents, your hopes, your dreams, your passions, your goals, your fears, your joys.

Maybe you are adopted... but not by me. Maybe you never knew me and I never had the chance to know you. Maybe to you, this letter is from a complete stranger. 

I. Don't. Know. You.
(Yet.)

I'm only sixteen. Just a teenager marveling at how fast my life is hurtling by. And although I know nothing about you- only what I imagine in my mind, I'm not worried. Because even now, at 10:31 PM on September 8th, 2014... you are completely real. I believe firmly that every strand of your DNA has been meticulously mapped out. Your perfect body and features have been planned by the most creative and perfect mind. Your brain and heart have been dreamed up by the One who invented dreams. Your personality is like a song just waiting to begin.

Your life is like a movie... and my God is just waiting to press 'Play.' You are you. Already. Even though nobody on the planet has a single clue as to who you will be- that's okay. Because the One who created the planet has it all figured out. He knows your name. He knows your birthday. He knows where you live, He knows who your parents are. He knows your nationality.

He knows your interests because He gave them to you. He knows your passions because He lit that fire! He knows your story because He wrote it. Already. And someday- He'll begin the process of publishing it. Your story. Your life. A work of art just waiting to bless the world.

Believe it or not, I think about you a lot. Some nights I lie awake for hours thinking about you. I haven't decided on a name yet. If you're a girl, I'm thinking maybe Avery, or Piper. If you're a boy... I don't really know. Maybe Sage or Tucker. 

I think so often about where we will live, how I will raise you, and how madly in love I will be with you. I pray that I will get to experience that- that I will get to meet you. Like I said, maybe we're not even related by blood, but I chose you because you had no one else. But whoever you are, wherever you are, and whenever you are, I pray more than anything for one thing: That we will be family through His blood.

My son, my daughter, my niece, my nephew, my foster child, my godchild, my sponsor child, my student, my friend... I don't care about anything other than this: I want you to know. KNOW. Know beyond any shadow of a doubt that there is One True Love in this world, and that is it. I can only be a reflection. This One True Love is pure beauty and perfection- which is exactly what you are modeled after. 

Yes, He has designed your mind to form certain opinions, think a certain way, show love through a certain language, but He does desire one thing specifically, one thing that dominates all your unique characteristics. He wants You.

He's got you figured out right now. And just thinking about that gives me shivers- because you probably won't be around for years yet. But you're in the making. And once you are born, He will still be making you. I mean, He's still making me. He's still making my parents and my grandparents. He's never done! It's amazing- His plan for us just keeps getting better and better! 

The reason I want so badly for you to be in love with your Creator is because I want to spend eternity with You, with Him. There is no other way. Even if I never get to meet you, even if I never get to see you grow up- I will still see your perfected, finished masterpiece someday in the Throne room of Grace.

I am trying my best to be a good ancestor for you. I'll be leaving behind many memories from my life. Pictures, journals, books, artwork, CDs, belongings, this blog- I can't take any of them with me when my few years are up. 

Romans 12:1~

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

But right now, I want to be working hard every day to make sure that everything I own, everything I say, everything I buy, everything I gain... I want to make sure that it is all something you would be proud of. Something that would teach you, something that would matter, so that it could be passed down through the generations and not be forgotten. Even now, I am praying for you. It's true.

I have stories I could tell you- so many stories. But not right here. Go find one of my journals, go read more on my blog, go look through the scrapbooks. But just trust me. I've only been here for, like, 6,000 days. And yet, in that short amount of time, God has already proved Himself over and over and over. He didn't even have to. I've doubted, I've shouted, I've pouted, but HE chose to forgive me and prove to me that He is the way. And He is real.

I know it's something you need to discover for yourself, and I can't make the decision for you. Even if I could, I wouldn't. I can promise you, however, that there is only one hope- only ONE way to make your life have a purpose.

How? Just look to the one and only thing that I know about you. You were created by MY Father. Big 'F.'

Isaiah 64:8~

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; 

we are the clay, and you are our potter; 

we are all the work of your hand.

Sincerely, 

Your 16-year-old Ancestor.