Ethnicity - 12
We stem from branches of the family tree.
I’m Swedish and Norwegian. I speak English. According to certain biblical genealogists, I have descended from the family tree of Japheth. My wife is of German descent, also from Japheth.1
This would mean that at Babel (and since) I came from families that migrated from the plain of Shinar to the Nordic region.
And the language I speak, I adopted as a result of the familial history that brought me further to my landing place (my geography). I was born and raised in the state of Wisconsin, in the United States of America. I still live in Wisconsin.
My mother’s father, Andrew Källström (he had his named changed to Carlstrom when he arrived in America), was from Simeå, Sweden. At age 16, he left Simea and traveled to Canada, then came down to the United States through North Dakota, then on to Wisconsin. This all happened after his father had committed suicide. Andrew’s sister, Marta, and brother Knute came with him. Twin brothers Eric and John did not come. I’m not sure what became of his mother, Anna.
Andrew became a naturalized citizen of the United States, after completing his naturalization class in 1893.
The Norwegian part of me came from the fact that my father (Bruce) was born (out-of-wedlock) to a man named Hans Skudstad. My grandma - her name was Florence Nelson - was a young woman in love. She got pregnant and the two of them went to the courthouse to get a marriage license, only to find out Hans was already married. My grandma raised my dad as a single mom until he was twelve and she married a man named Leo Gappa (Polish). Leo Gappa adopted my dad. My grandma and Leo had no additional children.
All of that to say this: we come from a family tree. There are three main roots under that tree but only one taproot. Adam and Noah are the taproot. Shem, Ham and Japheth are the roots moving off laterally from their father.
We are supposed to be good fathers to our children. God wants it. We are to provide for them. We must train them to follow the LORD. They are members of the household God has entrusted to us. So we are obligated to involve them in His Word, in our worship, and in Jesus Christ’s kingdom-oriented dominion tasks.
It is more than an obligation, it is a privilege. We get to play a role in their individual callings by helping them to develop skills. We teach them to think, to speak, to write, to communicate, to labor, to love, etc. We are privileged to be able to love them. It is impermissible to neglect them or abandon them. To good men it is unfathomable.
I believe my grandfather, Andrew Carlstrom, was abandoned by his father when he killed himself. That was a sinful shame. I also believe my dad was abandoned by his natural father (Hans) after he impregnated my grandma, Florence. Though I never knew him, I resent him for it. My grandmother was a wonderful woman. How could he do that to her?
I didn’t decide when I was born or to whom. God decided.
It is just as the Apostle Paul said, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…” (Acts 17:26-27)
I did not decide I would be Swedish and Norwegian, or that I would be born in 1963 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. I did not decide my father would be brought up by a single mom during his important and formative childhood years. I cannot imagine the influence upon my mom’s dad when his father committed suicide, along with his own decision to float across the ocean to America. Yet all these things inform who I am in history.
I did decide to marry a German girl from my high school. I did decide to follow Jesus Christ in my sophomore year in college. I did decide to have as many children as the Lord determined for me. And I will continue to decide to try and lead all of my household in the ways of God. And I will not leave them, not any generation of them.
I believe a good father does not abandon his household. He stays. He thinks about the multi-generational effects of his decisions. He chooses for God’s purposes over his own and then works to become a benefactor and elder that will bless his heirs. It is difficult to put confidence in men who leave. I don’t want to be a man who leaves.
So, I pray for my Swedish/Norwegian/German children to grow in God’s grace and have households of their own. I also pray that they will learn to be stayers.
Two examples of places I found this connection: Rawlinson, George, The Origin of Nations and Hodge, Bodie, The Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors.