From Everlasting to Everlasting by Gloria Kuykendall

“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts” (Psalm 103:17–18, NIV).

I was invited to a birthday party that took months of careful planning, done mostly by a couple of wild guys whose hearts are full of love and gratitude for a very special woman—their grandmother whom they call “Nanny.” This special woman, my cousin Judy, just turned eighty—though you probably wouldn’t be able to guess her age. She is active and feisty, but she has to be in order to keep up with her twin grandsons Will and Cade, the aforementioned “wild guys.”

Will and Cade are two remarkable young men in their mid-twenties. They grew up homeschooled under the direction of their grandmother and their mother Liz; their grandfather Jim was often their partner-in-crime in various hijinks. They became entrepreneurs with a lawn service they started before they could even drive. Now they are EMTs, with the lawn service still going on the side. Yet even with their busy work lives and Alabama football games, they have remained close to their grandmother. They love to keep her guessing about what they might do next, so it was not unexpected when they told me about Nanny’s surprise 80th birthday party in October.

I tell you all this to give you an inkling of the kind of folks on this side of my extended family—but this was not a family I was born into. Technically I’m not actually related to Judy, Liz, Will, and Cade or any of the other family members among the one hundred plus people who showed up to wish Judy a Happy Birthday. Although I’m not related by blood or adoption, I feel more a part of this Sand Mountain family than if I had been included from birth. Let me tell you why.

When I was twelve, my mother died, leaving me and two older brothers confused and grieving. My mother had raised us to go to church, but with her death, we lost all interest in going and my father, an agnostic, did not force the issue. Then several months later, we felt our lives turned even more upside down when our dad married a woman named Janice. She was from a close-knit family of Depression-era farmers whose ties to the land and to the Lord ran deep.

If you were a child who lived in a house with Janice, you went to church. My brothers balked at the idea, but we all went. It didn’t take long before I really heard the gospel for the first time and soon met my Savior. It took a while longer before my dad and brothers became Christians. I often wonder if I would have ever accepted Christ as my Savior had it not been for Janice. Perhaps she would not have been as persistent in her prayers over three stubborn, rebellious teenagers and their dad had it not been for the heritage of faith in which she had been raised.

I could see some results of that heritage at the party this past Sunday. I am included in Janice’s family not just because she married my father, but also because of the roots of Christian faith reflected in the love that was automatically extended to us by her mother, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews—the whole lot of them. I truly believe that God used their love to help us heal from the loss of our mother and, more importantly, to bring us to Him: “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children” (Psalm 103:17). To fear the Lord is to humbly accept that we are nothing without Him. A family that lives out that kind of faith is likely to pass it on to “their children’s children.” Will and Cade exhibit that kind of faith—and they are the fourth generation of Janice’s family that I have been blessed to know and love.

My parents’ families and siblings lived far away in New York and New Mexico, so the connection with them has never been as strong as with my Alabama folks. To be welcomed with open hearts by new aunts and uncles, to have built-in cousins to spend time with, and to hug a grandmother who baked tea cakes and left them in a little glass dish by her back door when we came to visit—they are a treasure for which I will always thank God. Most of them have now gone on ahead to heaven, and the memories of time spent with them confirm my gratitude to the Lord who shaped their lives: “those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts” (Psalm 103:18). God planned for them to change my life by their example and kindness long before any of us were born.

The number of people who took the time to celebrate Judy’s life and the part she had played in their lives is evidence of the multigenerational effect that such families have in our community of faith. Judy and Jim, their daughter Liz and husband Brian, and the grandsons Will and Cade have touched the lives of many. You probably know families like this—or perhaps you were blessed to be born into an extended Christian family where faith is as natural as breathing. I believe that pattern of spiritual growth is how God meant us to live: surrounded by relatives who help us learn the love of our Lord in everyday joys and sorrows.

Our lives are short. Even Judy’s eighty years are a brief span of time compared to history. Earlier in Psalm 103, the psalmist David reminds us that “The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more” (verses 15–16). It is sad to think about how our existence seems so inconsequential, but we read on to see that “those who fear” the Lord will experience His love “from everlasting to everlasting.” The love of a faithful Christian family goes beyond the walls of their home and extends God’s love to other family members and friends.

I hope that you have this kind of family, whether you were born into it or were included by marriage or some other means; if not, you can be the beginning of a new heritage of faith. The family God placed you in was not an accident of fate but a design of His plan. From time everlasting God’s love can shape you and those you call family. Pray for the faith of your family members, and tell God how thankful you are for them—even if they are “wild guys.” Consider them a blessing. I’ll be praying for you.