Reviving the Family Flow - The Importance of Remembrance

For our inaugural blog post, Lift Every Voice LLC is pleased to present the message of Rev. Dr. Grace Traylor, Pastor of Martin Chapel AME Zion Church in Clinton Township, Michigan. "Reverend Grace" provided the closing remarks at the 2016 Traylor Family Reunion, held in Detroit, Michigan, and she ended the Reunion on a note that few will forget. Although Traylors subscribe to many religious beliefs, her words gathered the group together to highlight the importance of remembrance, gratitude, and the responsibility of those alive today to “speak to the future.” Her words were rooted in the Old Testament, Joshua 3 and 4.

Before I begin, I would remind us that as people of God, we are called to remember some basics that we should not forget.

1. To remember how good God is, and how He is faithful to His people;

2. How He maintains His purposes and how He is ever present;

3. How He keeps His promises because His word is unchanging.

Here, in the account of Joshua 3 and 4, we have stones which are to be a memorial forever for the people of Israel. The “stones of remembrance” commemorated God’s intervention as His people crossed the Jordan River, where He held back the waters and allowed them to cross over.

Two facts about humanity that transcend time, culture, and context are that it is human nature to be real good at forgetting, and that children ask a lot of questions! The Traylor Family Reunion helped us address both of these issues. What Does All of This Mean for the Traylor Family?

Looking to the past, we must not only learn from our ancestors, we must learn from our own mistakes as well as our successes; from our tragedies as well as our triumphs; from our sins as well as our virtues. We must remember that we are the ancestors of those yet unborn and we should seek to leave for them a heritage that they can be as proud of as that which has been given to us.

We are the guardians of the Traylor family. We are responsible for building a monument of touchstones of remembrance, so that decades from now, when our children ask about the family portrait, the artifacts, the keepsakes, the heirlooms, of their ancestors, their parents will know what to tell them. In the future, when our children, and their children, and their children’s children ask “What do these things mean?” they can tell their stories. They can tell them back in summer of 2016 in Detroit, Michigan, we learned about this relative, and that story, and that accomplishment or challenge.

Each of us, too, will have our own rivers to cross, when God held back the waters of dangers, seen and unseen; suffering without provocation; and yes, even death—because you had encountered the power of God in your life. You can speak to what happened when the implausible comes up against the glorious riches of God!

Over the past two days our focus has been on trying to remember and record our past and how we are connected—we are connected because we bear the name Traylor, but our focus shouldn’t be the circumstances of our birth or attachment, but to the reality of our existence in this family, but to the reality that we exist. My brothers and sisters, in a world that easily forgets, we are challenged, and given a charge, like Joshua, to speak into the future in such a way that bears witness to the power of God in the details of our daily lives.

My personal prayer for this very special occurrence: each one commits to raise a stone of remembrance to the future. Our weekend has been filled with excitement, for some, anticipation; food, drink, party, drink (keeping it real), fellowship, and worship. But, let’s be very clear and of sober mind. Never again will this configuration of people—this specific group of souls—gather together. Some will fall away from the family; some won’t be able to travel the next time for various reasons; some have yet to be born, and some will have crossed their final river…

After 20 or so years, God appointed a time such as this, to remove whatever obstructions that impeded our flow…our commitment to reconnect…That we have experienced a “revival-comeback, restoration, regeneration, recovery, renewal—I could go on! The flowing waters of connectedness are moving again in this branch of the Traylor Family…

God be with you until we meet again…

#trail