Have you ever done a DNA search on Ancestry.com or 23 and Me? What did you find out? Our Y-DNA derives from our dads, and our mitochondrial DNA from our moms. My dad and I both did DNA searches, and not surprisingly, we have very similar roots. We both come from a long line of ancestors! And neither of us have Neanderthal roots. Whew!
When Noah disembarked from the ark, along with the aardvarks, his sons also got off the boat. From Shem, Ham, and Japheth came all the people who were scattered over the whole earth. Which one is your ancestor? Our DNA results did not answer that question.
Through these three men and their wives, God chose to repopulate the earth. I do not claim to understand how all of this interacts with the science of DNA and fossil records. I would simply say that humans were created by God in his image. Our ancestors are humans. More importantly, we should see other persons, even those with whom we may disagree, as fellow image bearers of God. Looking forward to the New Testament, we may add that Christ died for the sins of all these humans. In Christ we are God’s workmanship created for good works.
Once an elderly gentleman stopped Fred Craddock in a restaurant, introduced himself, and told him his story. The man told him that he learned at a young age that he was illegitimate. Unfortunately, the town’s people shamed him when he was a child for his unknown parentage. Even at church, he felt the stares, so when the time for the final prayer came, he would sneak out the back door. A new preacher called on someone else to pray and put a hand on his shoulder, catching Ben at the door. When the prayer ended, the pastor looked at the boy and asked the dreaded question, “Whose boy are you?” Then he smiled at the boy and said, “I know whose son you are. I see the family resemblance. You are a child of God. Now go out there and claim your inheritance.” Craddock remembered that the people of Tennessee had twice elected Ben Hooper as their Governor.
Through faith, we are children of God. As we walk with Christ, we discover that we grow in spiritual likeness to Christ himself. To quote the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins: “But I say more. The just man justices, keeps grace that keep all his goings graces; acts in God’s eye who in God’s eye he is: Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in eyes, lovely in limbs, not His to the Father, through the features of our faces.”
