Dead?

Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born . . . 

 - From Hebrews 11

My study of my ancestry has introduced me to a fascinating man: Adam T Darr. He is my Great-Great-Great uncle, the namesake of his father, Gottlieb Adam Darr, who emigrated to the US with his wife, Christina, and only child at the time, Catherine. 

Adam T. Darr was a high profile citizen of the town of West Newton, Pennsylvania. He was a veteran of the Civil War. A politician. A leader of the local Methodist Church. A Mason. He sold insurance, and was postmaster for a time. He served on the Fire Board. He was a model citizen, a Booster. 

He reminds me of a lot of the uncles that I have known in my life. I believe that, since I got to know so many elders whose lives intersected my own, that I can know something about Adam Darr, who I never knew. Because . . . the same DNA runs through all of us and many personality traits are shared. 

Adam Darr married late in life. He and his wife, Mary, never had children. But their home, on Vine Street, became as lively a home, filled with the laughter and play of children, as any conventional family of four, or more. 

When his brother-in-law died, leaving his sister, Lucille, and her two children alone, Adam and Mary welcomed them into their home, where they stayed forever. His nephew, John Obley, and his sister, Elizabeth, were thus raised in the home of Adam and Mary Darr. They became his kids as much as the kids of their mother. 

Later, John Obley, too, grew up. His sister never married . . . but John did, to the former Lena Kite. They inherited the home of Adam Darr, and had but one daughter, Olive. Olive, keeping with the pattern, married late and had just one son, Jack, who married late, but has no children. I met him two summers ago.

But John and Lena Obley, keeping in the spirit of the family's DNA, took in her niece when she became a widow, and her three daughters, who therefore grew up as sisters to Olive . . . and the three of them left a progeny of several dozens of descendants. 

Thus was the family of Adam Darr, with no biological children  of his own, sustained and increased through the passage of time. 

The Bible seems to indicate that the adopted child is more precious than a biological child, in some ways. Because, you see, an adopted child is chosen. But your blood relatives . . . you're stuck with. And, out of the two forms of child-rearing, you get to practice two kinds of love, both equally valuable and needed. 

As I look at the problems in the world today . . . and the problem of gun violence, particularly that perpetrated upon mobs of strangers, I can't help but think about the two forms of love: Love you're stuck with, and love you choose. It is the absence of both, that is so devastating to the healthy development of young people, particularly young men. 

We do not take care of the people we're stuck with. And we do not choose to love, as we should. 

You end up with a preponderance of people that have been rejected in one way or the other. And the only response is bitterness, anger, violence. 

Notice me!!!

I mean . . . what else would you expect?

So once again, we see the truth of Scripture borne out among us. 

We must love the ones we're with. And we must choose to love many others. 

Of course, when Abraham was promised a family as the stars of Heaven, God was not talking about adoption. There's a lot to be said about being fruitful and multiplying . . . there are so many geniuses and great men and women still to be born!

But it's the spirit of adoption . . . for God adopted us . . . that's so wonderful. I think of my distant Uncle Adam, and realize that he modeled something that . . . if more of us did it . . . maybe a lot of society's problems would go away.  

Adam Darr lives on, in the hearts and souls of his many adopted descendants.