What are we leaving behind for others to follow?

In my reading from Max Lucado’s book “When God Whispers Your Name," (pp103-4), he used an illustration that I found inspiring. He writes, "Stefan can tell you about family trees. He makes his living from them. He inherited a German forest that had been in his family for 400 years. The trees he harvested were planted 180 years ago by his great-grandfather. The trees he planted won’t be ready for market until his great-grandchildren are born."

He goes on to say, every generation must make a choice. They can either pillage or plant, they can rape the landscape and get rich or they can care for the landscape, harvest only what is theirs, and leave an investment for their children,

Stefan harvested seeds sown by men he never had the honor of meeting or getting to know. Stefan sows seeds to be harvested by descendants he’ll never know.

As we stand behind the pulpit or sit in the pew we should take a moment to reflect how we got there. Someone who responded to God in the past generations has made the sacrifice for us today. People have never known who love the LORD and was convicted to invest in the future. We are that future. Now these past generations have past the baton to us. What we do with it and how we use it will determine the future for our children, our grandchildren and the generations to come. The Apostle Paul tells us "That some cultivate, some plant, some water but it is God who gets the increase."

So, our question is this: What footprints are we leaving for our descendants to follow?