Walking in the Ancient Paths

My Nanny—my mother’s mother—was a great cook.

She came by it naturally. She was raised on a farm where she would help her own mother bake eight dozen scones every day and would serve all the menfolk early breakfast while it was still dark, real breakfast when they came in several hours later and then a full dinner (as opposed to lunch) at noon every day.

For my entire married life, the meal I have prepared for Christmas Eve dinner has been roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Because, growing up, that’s also what my mother would prepare for us. And what her mother would prepare for her, and back to Nanny’s mother—newly arrived to Vancouver Island from England and still very British in tradition.

I happen to love roast beef and Yorkshire pudding but more than that, there is something so satisfying and ‘connecting’ about standing at a stove and preparing food in the same way it’s been done for generations in my family. The old ways, the tried and true ways, the proven methods, the “ancient paths.”

This year in Women’s Ministries, we’ve taken that as our theme: “ . . . ancient paths . . .”  We are proposing that there is value in studying the lives, the spiritual disciplines, the Kingdom victories of those who have gone before us. The recipes, as it were, for Christlike living. We are inextricably tied to the heroes of the faith, and the model of not only Jesus Himself but those who are His followers is worth our attention.

This year, at the same time, our new senior pastor Darin McWatters is unpacking the book of Hebrews, and he’s even employed the word “ancient” in the tagline for the Hebrews series: HEBREWS: Modern Faith Anchored by Ancient Truth.  Hmmm, heroes of the faith? Hebrews 11. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, and those who have been faithful? Hebrews 12:1-2.

Many of you will recognize some lyrics of a song written by Steve Green a number of years ago: “Find Us Faithful” (© Steve Green, 1988)

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses

Let us run the race not only for the prize

But as those who’ve gone before us

Let us leave to those behind us

The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

May the fire of our devotion light their way

May the footprints that we leave

Lead them to believe

And the lives we live inspire them to obey

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.

Join us, won’t you? Join us to rejoice over the faithful lives of those who have gone before us . . . join us to consider the legacy we leave to those who come behind us. This year in Women’s Ministries we will be walking together the ancient paths.

And, by the way, if you need a recipe for Yorkshire pudding, just let me know.