The genealogy lists each generation, the years of their lives and their eventual death. "So and so lived so many years, and then he died." We know nothing of their character or accomplishments except for one - Enoch. He is known to us in these words: "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." (Genesis 5:24) The fact that his death is not recorded, and that God "took him away", leads to the understanding that Enoch, like Elijah, was translated out of this life without suffering death.

"By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:5,6)

Enoch was of the line of those who "began to call on the name of the Lord." (Genesis 4:26) He earnestly sought the Lord and he found him. Such is the nature of faith. Such faith, such seeking, pleases God. He rewards those who earnestly seek him. What is the reward? Surely it is in knowing God, in making your life count for something in God's plan, that your life is not wasted, and that you have an eternal destiny, which conquers death - Paradise Regained. One of my favorite psalms is the 63rd.

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)

In my family history I can find little in the way of faith. On both my mother and my father's sides of the family there was church membership, but little participation, no known heart-religion. Hard work, and respectability were the gods that were worshipped.

As I look at my genealogy it seems like a dry and weary land. There was a spiritual barrenness, a desert bereft of the water of life. There were precious few, if any, Enoch's to be found. Death was final. There was no higher destiny. Fatalism, was the de facto philosophy of life. The past was not explored. Reflection was unknown. Instead, our aim was to be diverted from sorrow and suffering by activity. Diversions, diversions, diversions - so that we did not have to think about the future. Sports, entertainment, circuses, rodeos, horse racing, lotteries, amateur dramatics, lots of parties and carousing filled our nights and weekends. Church on Sundays, for those inclined, enabled those who were seeking God to find him.

They were oases in the desert. The clergy were different. They represented another world spoken of in the Bible. When I sought the Lord in worship, in music, in Holy Communion, in reading the Bible and the lives of Christian missionary heroes, another dimension was added to life. Another means of fulfillment was opened up to me. My hunger and thirst advanced to another level.

I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.....
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;with singing lips my mouth will praise you. (Psalm 63:2-5)

I can identify with Enoch who earnestly sought God when there was precious little available to him to direct him in his search, precious few resources to draw on.

"Enoch walked with God because he was his friend and liked His company, because he was going in the same direction as God, and had no desire for anything but what lay in God's path....with the godly man everything has a connection with God and must be ruled by that connection....it is a persistent endeavor to hold all our life open to God's inspection and in conformity to His will, a readiness to give up what we find does cause any misunderstanding between us and God, a feeling of loneliness if we have not some satisfaction in our efforts at holding fellowship with God, a cold and desolate feeling when we are conscious of doing something that pleases him.... it is easy then to understand how we may practically walk with God - it's to open to Him all our purposes and hopes, to seek his judgment on our scheme of life and idea of happiness - it is to be on thoroughly friendly terms with God." (Marcus Dods, Book of Genesis, 51-53)

When I discovered that life could be lived by walking with God, new frontiers were opened to me. This life became more important since, what I did with my life took on a new significance. I became aware that there were some things that were not pleasing to God. I realized that plenty of my contemporaries wasted their lives on useless things.

In not seeking God they became ungodly: selfish and superficial. It concerned me that they would die without faith and their lives would have been for nought - wasted. This must have bothered Enoch as well. His walk with God involved being very aware of the consequences of walking apart from God.

The New Testament reports the tradition that Enoch preached about the coming judgment. "Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men [the ungodly]: 'See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.'" (Jude 14,15)

Such a warning sets us up for the story of Noah and the judgment of the Flood.

Jesus calls us to walk with him - to walk in his way. "Just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk [live] in him." (Colossians 2:6) Continue to conduct your life in Christ. "They will walk with me." (Revelation 3:4) It is the same word as peripatetic. He wants to be our friend. As you walk around, living your life, walk with God.

"We walk with God when He is in all our thoughts, not because we consciously think of Him at all times, but because He is naturally suggested to us by all we think of; as when any person or plan or idea has become important to us, no matter what we think of, our thought is always found recurring to this favorite object, so with the godly man everything has a connection with God and must be ruled by that connection." (Marcus Dods, ibid.)

Walk in Christ. Acknowledge his presence. Converse with him: as you travel, as you drive, as you bicycle, as you play golf or tennis, as you swim. It will change your life. You will never be alone. Your life will count for something good.

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