Spiritual Inheritance

It' been a very long time since I was twelve years old and first read "Gone With the Wind." But for the last few months a passage from it kept coming to mind. It takes place after Scarlett makes her way back to Tara from Atlanta. She arrives to find Tara intact, but her beloved mother dead and her father's mind unhinged. She finds that if she, and what is left of her family are going to survive, it will be primarily up to her. To help lessen the shock she is in, she drinks a dipper full of hard spirits. She thinks of all the stories she heard from childhood of her ancestors on both sides, many who overcame great obstacles and "crushing misfortunes."

"All of those shadowy folks whose blood flowed in her veins seemed to move quietly in the moonlit room. And Scarlett was not surprised to see them, these kinsman who had taken the worst that fate could send and hammered it into the best. Tara was her fate, her fight, and she must conquer it.
She turned drowsily on her side, a slow creeping blackness enveloping her mind. Were they really there, whispering wordless encouragement to her, or was this a part of her dream?
'Whether you are there or not,' she murmered sleepily, 'good night-and thank you.' "

It was on my mind to the point that I actually pulled out the dusty book, found the passage and read it to my husband. I know, he really is a treasure!

Also coming to mind was a scene from the movie "Hildago"; actually two scenes. Frank, the main character seems somewhat ashamed of his "half-breed" status. His mother was Native-American. But during a long, hard race across a desert in the middle east, an Arabian opponent says something to the effect that he comes from a long line of a noble people who have raised fine horses, at which point Frank yells out "So do I!" In the other scene, Frank and his horse are down and have given up to the point of death. Then Frank has a vision of his mother which encourages him and helps him to not give up.

Then about a week ago, I read an excerpt from Bob Jones' Shepherd Rod-2009:

"We all have ancestors who for different reasons never completed their calling in Christ. Their gifts are still available because of bloodline blessings. It's time to ask God for our spiritual inheritance; that which our ancestors left incomplete. We need to ask God to grant us the wisdom, mercy and grace to walk out that which we were called to."

I was also reminded of the "great cloud of witnesses" referred to in Hebrews 12:1.

KDR