My daughter has been asking for a DNA test. She looks just like me and has many of my husband’s traits...so I doubt she is questioning her paternity.
I suspect it is because we recently ordered one for our new puppy. The Australian Shepherd that looks nothing like a shepherd. She is half the size of our previous dogs and has mostly short hair rather than the lengthy fluff of a normal Aussie. Her ears are just a little too pointy and snout too narrow. We were curious so I ordered a kit on Amazon. I feel like we waited forever for the results to come in. I stopped strangers in public when they had dogs that looked like mine and asked what kind they were. I was afraid we’d get answers like chihuahua. And the results were surprising. She is mostly what we were told. With a hint of some other similar breeds. None of which really account for her looks or temperament.
Tess asked again for a DNA test, maybe for her birthday, she suggested.
Her birthday is not until September and so I found myself ordering the most unlikely of Confirmation gifts. I figure someone else will give her a cross from James Avery or devotional, and I ordered a swab.
And I thought about what this will tell her.
Like, our pup, Tess will swab her cheek and we will mail it off and wait a few weeks to find out about her genetic ancestry.
It might tell her what side of the family her fair skin and freckles come from.
If she has an Irish temperament.
What percentage her make-up is.
The company we ordered from claims that “our DNA test offers you the powerful experience of discovering what makes you unique and learning where you really come from.”
And well, as much as I love science. I don’t think it can deliver on that promise. Or even come close. So I’ll have to tell her the truth.
That... sure, some of your genes come from my side of the family and some comes from your father..but it is not what makes a person unique or where you come from.
That you have stumbled through in confirmation. That bible, that you mostly leave on the floor of my car has more than a few words to say about who you are and who you come from as well. My favorite is in Psalm 139
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Your DNA can only tell you so much.
God knows more than your nucleic acids will reveal.
The church has taught that you are a child of God.
That is written on your heart and not in your DNA.
But.
There is more.
You still get to choose.
Who you will be. And not just once, but every day.
When you will choose to be kind.
When you can choose community or independence.
When you will offer help and when you will give it.
When you will stand up. And be silent.
When you will forgive or hold a grudge.
Your DNA test won’t tell you what we have known since you were knit together in my womb.
That you are known and loved and enough. That you have been named and chosen. And that so much is still left up to you.
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