The Baker/Karloski Family’s Spiritual Lineage: Reflections of a Wannabe Biblical Genealogist (Overture)

For the next year (2012) I am going to weekly chronicle my adventures through the Bible of Leona Baker and whatever Bibles I can acquire from the Baker/Karloski family. Each week I will post a meditation, observation, or interesting thought about these bibles so as to reflect on both the deep spiritual heritage of the Baker/Karloski family lineage, and to help younger family members connect or re-connect with their familial ancestry. With this in mind, I would like to make my way through the Bible of Leona Baker to show that our spiritual lineage is saturated with a sound mind, a passionate heart, a committed and devoted wife, and a bold and outspoken woman. I believe Leona’s “notes” can be our guide to understanding the bible and our family, and help us see the path to take.

In all sincerity and honesty, this gift is really for me, since only in the past year or so (really since India) have I begun to feel the tremendous glory of having a special place in this specific family. I will try to accompany each post with pictures and videos of things that relate to each week's thought. I would like to emphasize that your participation in this "project" will make this a much better project. Please send me pictures and videos of anything related to the Baker/Karloski religious collective. Bibles are also an invaluable offering for this project. For example, about four months ago I plopped into bed, exhausted from the day's activities. I opened a Bible my mother said was her father's, Homer Baker. I began to read all the little notes hand written in the opening pages and came to the discovery that this bible was Leona's. Floored by my discovery I turned the page a began reading a prayer by Grandma about dying well. My jaw dropped! I immediately began to see the wisdom in this prayer. A prayer wrapped with compassion for her family, for her body, and for her God. I turned to Nicky and said, "People in our family need to hear more about our ancestors thoughts on the scriptures!" I kept reading and found myself in Genesis 2. Leona had lived a traditional married life in the early twentieth century (one could say a typical patriarchal married life with clear cut roles for the husband and wife). Yet Leona's marginal notes and underlining became thick, wild, and drenched in thoughtful comments about the marital life of adam and eve. If that gets you excited, you will have to wait until I write my thoughts on it!

Another inspiration for this blog was a book written in 2007 titled "Reading the Bible with the Dead: What You Can Learn from the History of Exegesis That You Can't Learn from Exegesis Alone" by John L. Thompson. Thompson suggests that reading the history of interpretation on a particular text is more helpful than just reading that text in isolation of anything else. To simplify that, reading the bible with those that have "gone before us" (those that have died) gives us better insight into a biblical text's meaning rather than if we just read the bible alone. On top of that, you also get a sneak peek into the lives of those who have translated and interpreted those biblical texts. This is an added bonus because it provides us with a link between an ancient text and our modern context. For years I thought my family was rather morbid, always talking about those that have died. I thought my family believed in a romantic view of the past (that it was better than the present). This book and Nicky and my Graduate degrees at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary have helped me to see that while those negative views could be present in the Baker/Karloski family, there are helpful, hopeful, and all the more wonderful views that I'd never seen before.

For me, I will make 2012 an exploration into my past, and therefore into my future. Will you journey with me?

Remember, please send me any material you have (pictures, bibles, etc.). Also, please post comments, or questions you have either about what I've written (if it's unclear), or about stuff you would like to dialogue about together, concerning our family's spiritual lineage.

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