Where Are You From?
by Celene Melenciano
Good morning boys and girls. I hope you are doing well. I hope you’re happy to be here. Happy Sabbath. And I hope that you are really enjoying your summer and your vacation.
I wanted to ask you, do you know where you’re from? Do you know where you were born? Do you know where your parents were born? What about your grandparents? Or maybe even your great-grandparents? Have you ever done that family tree to see all the generations or as many as you can find, the generations to see where you come from. You know, we can do that. And it’s actually kind of fun asking your parents and your grandparents how much they remember and to figure out how far back you can go. And you know, there’s those services like ancestry.com and stuff where you can do those tests and figure out. a little bit more detail of where your family line comes from. A lot of us come from Central American countries, Mexico or even south of that, Guatemala, Salvador, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, like all those. And then sometimes we even come from across the ocean, from somewhere in Europe or Africa or Asia or some, you know, we come from so many places and we end up here. where we are now.
I was born here in Los Angeles and raised here. But my parents are from Mexico, from two different states over there. My mom was raised in a small town, which is really cute. I went there often when we were younger. And it was really nice. And it had a big plaza where we played. And the little park was there. And we had the swings and all that. And the train ran right through the middle of it. And we loved going over those train tracks. My dad, on the other hand, grew up in the mountains, in the Sierras, in a little ranch-like, a little town that’s kind of like two blocks here and two blocks here, super small. And it has a church and it has a little school. And that’s where he grew up, up in the mountains. They’re up top up here and down here, there’s a river that flows by. And it is beautiful and green. It’s like a tropical place. Other parts of Mexico have like more desert like conditions where it’s really, really hot or sometimes they can snow. And there’s actually several areas in Mexico where there’s actually pyramids because they were made there, built by people that used to live there before.
Mexico has beautiful traditions. You know, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen anything like this. This is things that they make over there, you know. there’s these beautiful things that they make over there and that you’ll see if you go over. And it’s not just what you see, it’s what people wear, other than the hats and the sarapes and maybe the sandals that they wear, or the big hats, kind of like this. Those big hats that we dance with and people dance with because unfortunately, I’ve never been able to participate in those things. But… Those would be, those are so cool. And then you see the mariachis with their beautiful mariachi attire, you know? And then there’s the traditional clothes that the ladies and the men wear sometimes. The beautiful dresses with ruffles and flowers that are embroidered in many, many different colors. So I know that even though I was born here in LA, my parents are from Mexico. And so are their parents. and maybe even their parents. But somewhere down the line, they came from Europe. They came from Spain. There’s a little bit of, you know, when we do that ancestry.com, like I said, you find out that you have a little bit of Asian in you, a little bit of like African, a little bit of here and there, and all that comes together until you are born and you are here. And it’s very important to know where you’re coming from and your culture and where your family is from because it’s actually fun to learn and visit and all that stuff, you know?
But there’s one very important detail that we forget so many times. Because yes, in this world, we are from these places. But what about our spirituality, our hearts, our beings? You know who we really, really are? I mean, we love our parents. They are our parents and we respect them. And they are who we were given to, to raise us and help us become good people and good adults and everything. But we are the most important thing that we are is the children of God. Because God is our Father. He created us because He loves us. And sometimes we forget that very, very special detail. that we are the children of God. And the Bible actually shares that with us. If we look at 1 John chapter three, verse one, how great is the love the Father has lavished upon us that we should be called the children of God and that is what we are, because we are. The Bible tells us we’re the children of God. God tells us that he is our father and that he loves us and he protects us. And you know, he’s always there for us and listens just like our parents here are for us and maybe even our grandparents. God is the greatest father you can have. He is the biggest protector you can have. He is the one that allows us to enjoy our life. and get to know all these special people in our lives and where we are from in this world.
But just remember that God wants to take us home. And where is our home? Our home is not here in our houses made of wood. It is not, you know, in somebody else’s country or this country or that place. Our home is in heaven with our Father God. And we will get there soon. Okay, we just need to remember to love him and obey him and he will make it a marvelous experience for us to until the day that we go to heaven with him.
Boys and girls let’s go ahead and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for showing us who we are. not just that we have our parents and our brothers and sisters and grandparents and cousins and so many special people in their lives that you’ve given us and the places we’re from these beautiful places that you’ve created for us to enjoy but thank you for reminding us that we are your children that you are our father and you love us and you will take care of us Lord and that you want us to go home with you to heaven. Peace be with us this week. take care of these children and guide them Lord until that day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Boys and girls, we’ll see you next time. Remember where you’re really from. You’re not just from this world. You’re actually from out of this world and you belong to our father God.
Bye bye.