How to create generational memories

Last week we saw God teaching the importance of rest by providing the Israelites a double portion of manna on the sixth day. This week, we see God use the manna to instill a lesson about the signficance of generational memory:

Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” (Exodus 16:32-33)

Manna was key to the Israelites’ survival in the wilderness. It is how God rescued His people. It signified reliance on something other than their own efforts. It sustained them for decades. It was a Divine, material intervention in their lives, indicating Israel’s importance and God’s love and care through a particularly difficult time. Keeping some manna in a jar for generations was intended to help the Isrealites remember who they were and their relationship with God.

Family businesses often keep relics to help them remember who they are and where they came from. An old picture, an antique dish, an original deed or contract, a family Bible or a book of memoirs or a marker on land. They display symbols intended to remind them of their journey. At some point, all family businesses experience survival mode, and many find physical ways to remember those moments and God’s Providence.

Do you have any keepsakes that remind you of your struggles or accomplishments in the family business? Do you have a way of telling the next generation about the importance of these mementos?