The little incident takes place during a funeral, of all things. Some men were in the process of burying a dead body, when suddenly some enemy raiders swept in. So they fled, throwing their dead friend into a nearby grave, which happened to be the grave of the prophet Elisha. As soon as the corpse touched the bones of the dead prophet, it immediately came back to life again: the dead guy jumped to his feet (and presumably joined his friends in running away from the enemy.) Wow! Elisha certainly had a powerful legacy - when even his long dead body could give life to someone else.
Any of us who're past retirement age, or even those of us who're younger, would do well to consider the sort of legacy that we want to leave behind us when we leave this world. What do I need to be doing now in order to be able to keep influencing the next generation in the future?
Perhaps we need to turn some of our coronavirus lockdown days into "write down" days: writing down thoughts or testimonies from our own lives that we would want to share in the future with our grandchildren or with people we don't even know .
A friend of mine has recorded a 10 minute video every day since his lockdown began around three weeks ago. He calls them his "Ebenezer stories" (from 1 Samuel 7: 12 - where Samuel sets up a memorial stone to remind the people of how God has helped them.) My friend's Ebenezer stories are short accounts from his own life that he wants to pass on to his two daughters: stories of God's provision or God's protection; stories about when God gave guidance, fulfilled a vision or rescued him from danger. Some of the stories go back to his own childhood and teenage years, some are from when he was a young man, others are things that happened more recently. His goal is to record these stories, new and old, that illustrate for his children who God is and who He can be in their lives in the future.
So, it's a good question to ask ourselves in these coronavirus days: What do I need to be doing now in order to be able to keep influencing the next generation in the future? Perhaps there's something that we need to be recording, either in writing, audio or video. Perhaps we need to use these quarantine days to spend more time worshipping, praying, storytelling or reading God's Word with our children or our grandchildren.
None of us were expecting to be confined to our homes for several weeks.... but what a wonderful opportunity it presents to work on leaving a life-giving legacy for those who will come after us.
