As a teenager, I had a friend who used to joking ask, “Is it eternally significant?” At the time, her question simply became annoying. But now, I wonder…
… visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. —Exodus 20:5–6
“…iniquity … on the third and the fourth generations … but showing lovingkindness to thousands …” What a striking contrast!
We rarely consider the eternal implications of our actions. Sure, we think about our own eternal destiny. But the impact we will have on future generations? Not so much. It’s hard to imagine that everything I do today will affect multiple lives into the unseen future. But that’s what this verse promises.
It reminds me of a Winter evening I spent camping on the shores of a local lake.
While the cold bit through to the bone, the grandeur of the evening sky pulled me into thoughts of the eternal. When early morning arrived, I was mesmerized by a single bass boat speeding across the lake. My focus was slowly directed to the wake left on the surface of the water.
As a young water-skier, I had been aware that directly behind the boat, a single wake was created by the hull pressing through the water. But by the time that effect reached the end of my seventy-foot ski rope, there were two waves for me to navigate.
But that morning, I saw that as the waves finally reached the shore, their number seemed endless. While the waves got progressively smaller, they continued lapping the shore for what seemed like a very long time.
Following the eternal revelation of the seemingly infinite stars during the night before, my imagination easily saw deeper meaning in these waves. I began to think about a different type of wave.
In my mind, I saw a single stone dropping into the center of a large body of water. I watched as the waves generated by the stone began to multiply and move outward. Each wave continued until its progression was interrupted by some solid object. Even as some of the waves broke, others continued until they found a different target.
I began to grasp that this is what the passage in Exodus was showing me.
As we walk through our lives from day to day, we are faced with countless choices. Each choice gives us the opportunity to hear and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, or not.
And each of those choices is a stone dropped into the sea of eternity. Each one generates waves that proceed out into the unseen and unknown. They affect our families. Our friends.
Generations.
Blessings carried forward or curses that echo.
Each coin dropped in the offering plate. Every prayer uttered. Every unnoticed kindness.
Impatience, temper, dishonesty. Small daily compromises.
Private obedience. Hidden sin.
Waves. They all create waves. Waves that will continue to affect people we love, and people we will never know.
Is it eternally significant?
I believe I have discovered an answer.
Yes.