My username came from something that helps to remind me that I'm part of something much bigger and much more meaningful than the narrow little orbit I usually live in:
We each have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 gg-gps, 32 ggg-gps, 64 gggg-gps, etc, etc, adding up to an astonishing number of ancestors who came before us throughout all the generations over thousands of years, all the way back to Noah and his wife, and to Adam and Eve. All of us are their grandchildren. Hi, Cousins!
A standard family tree layout looks sort of like an hourglass, with a couple at the skinny part and all their ancestors spreading out to one side and all their descendants spreading out to the other. The analogy that comes to my mind is that we're all just grains of sand flowing through the hourglass of life, and it comforts me to think of being a part of something that's been going on long before I got here, squeezing through the skinny place, and hopefully will continue to go on long after I've passed through to the other side.
I don't feel the need to know the names and dates of my ancestors anymore, because I found what I was looking for. I am connected. I do belong. I'm not here on my own. God does have a plan, and it does include me. And I'm thankful to Him not only for including me in His plan, but also for all the wonders of His creation. What an amazing designer!
This "hourglass" was what came into my mind when I was asked to choose a username, so I looked for any scriptures that mentioned grains of sand. I found where God tested Abraham's faith in Genesis 22, and reading that chapter again moved me so much that I used some of the verses as my signature line.
I'd be thrilled to be counted as a grain of sand on that shore, as a spiritual descendant of Abraham.
