It’s interesting how far our personal history extends into the past, and how far into the future it will be revealed.

Yesterday, Jan and I were driving on I-5 in Oregon when we stopped at a rest stop north of Woodburn, Oregon. When I got out of our truck, I parked in front of a historic marker that mentioned Boone’s Ferry. The ferry took people across the river from the mid-1800s, up until I-5 was constructed in the late 50s.

The marker notes the history of the Boone Family, relatives of Daniel Boone, who was an early American pioneer and explorer. Mentioned in the marker was a man named Alphonso Boone, an ancestor of mine, connecting both of us to Daniel Boone. I am a descendant of Daniel Boone, one of his nephews.

It wasn’t until the early 2000s that I discovered my connection to Alphonso by researching the manifest of the first Applegate Wagon Train that entered Oregon in 1846. The wagon train followed a newly explored southern route into Oregon instead of traveling along the original northern route of the Oregon Trail.

As we drove along I-5, Boone’s Ferry Road was marked along the freeway numerous times. Unknown to me until just a few years ago, George Boone, one of Alphonso’s sons, is buried in the historic cemetery in the small town where Jan and I live in southern Oregon.

I said all of this to remind each of us of the footprint left behind by our personal histories. Our lives and families will leave behind a mark on that history. As we come to know the Lord, some of our histories will be rewritten from a Kingdom perspective, redeeming the history of an entire family line. How we choose to follow God, or not, will write a new chapter of that history.

Knowing our history is important, both to us and to God. “Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain it to you” (Deuteronomy 32:7).

Somewhere in our past is a history waiting to be discovered. Like it was for me, finding those points of history has reminded me of something I did not know existed. It has caused me to want to leave behind a righteous notation of my own history that will help someone in the future to have their faith built up in unexpected ways, like a road sign posted at a freeway rest stop.