I Am Them. Pt. 1

Several years ago, when I was privileged to teach a particular course at a local university, my alma mater, I spoke of “the Melting Pot” that we, as Americans have become, and are increasingly becoming.

And I suppose if there were a prime example in all the world of a hybrid race, it would take the form of the Caucasian American; of which I, myself, am included.

We are simply a product of our parentage, and it can be as varied as the fishes in the sea, or flowers in a field. For after all, our ancestors hail from a myriad of locations throughout the world, and each and every one of us contain a thousand assorted strands of DNA reflecting an amazing combination of ethnicities.

I think the majority of us get too busy living to reflect on the extraordinary lives which our grandparents led, and the vast number of direct ancestors to which we are beholden for our own unique identity.

I once did a bit of personal research to determine the number of grandparents any one of us have a right to call our own. And based upon my computations, I can tell you the numbers are nothing less than staggering.

(They don’t call it a ‘Family Tree’ for nothing).

Reflect a moment.

Each and every one of us have:

2 parents

4 grandparents

8 great grandparents

16 gg grandparents

32 ggg grandparents

(etc. etc.)

And if you follow this line of thought, you will discover that at the 1500 year mark, approximately 33 generations in the past, each and every one of us possess,

(drum roll)

1 billion direct ancestors!

(That is),

1 billion

… grandparents!

And if you transcend backwards in time one generation more,

2 billion grandparents!

And the 35^th generation,

4 billion grandparents!

(etc. etc)

And should this be thought strange? Nay. I say, ‘Nay’ since it is thought that the number of individuals who ever lived, and breathed and moved on this planet, (almost a tenth of which are still living) exceeds a hundred billion souls.

The notion that anyone thinks himself or herself somehow superior, or that he or she possesses ‘racial nobility’ is nothing less than laughable.

After all, even our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the only sinless progeny among us, the supposed Jew was …of mixed ethnicity, and, indeed, woven into the unique chromosomal lineage which was His were distinct traces of …Gentile ethnicity.  (For, after all, among His ancestors were Ruth, the Moabitess, and Rahab, the harlot).

And I have reflected that the myriad of people groups from which our Lord sprang was, after all, not by accident, but the result of some predetermined, omniscient plan, and which allowed the Messiah to more adequately and authoratatively identify with the various tribes and clans which populate the earth.

Who among us, then, can make any particular ‘claim to fame?’

Having done the calculations, (and not unlike God, Himself) I can only ‘laugh to scorn’ the bigotry of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White Militant churches in our midst.

For we are ALL of mixed ancestry. And not a one of us are exempt. For we all ‘own’ multiplied billions of direct ancestors, and it goes without saying that such a multiplicity of peoples have contributed all manner of ethnic bloodlines to make you and I the individuals whom we are today.

"Red & Yellow, Black & White. They are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world."

(to be continued)

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary, Vol. 37. Copyright pending

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