We are all familiar with relay races. Perhaps we have even participated in one and remember the sense of excitement, even fear, as the runner came up behind us. In such a race the heart begins to beat faster as your turn approaches to take the baton and run to give it to the next runner. If one person drops the baton, the whole team loses.

Scripture shows us that the way God gathers His Church can be compared to a relay race. The runners are parents. The baton is the Word of God containing God’s covenant promises and obligations. We are reminded at every baptism that God established His covenant with Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:7), a promise repeated on the “birthday” of the New Testament church (Acts 2:39).

The obligation to pass on the baton comes out in Deuteronomy 6:7 where we read how Moses commanded the parents by saying: “and you shall teach (God’s words) diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

A poetic description of this relay race is found in Psalm 78:4-9. In those words we are reminded of the content of what parents must pass on. It consists first of all of God’s glorious deeds. That point deserves emphasis: God’s glorious deeds! Due to the sinful nature of the children, parents will naturally spend much time giving commands to their children. The first thing that must be passed on, however, is not what the LORD demands, but what the LORD has done. When Asaph, in Psalm 78, wrote of the glorious deeds of the LORD and his might, he especially meant the way the LORD had delivered Israel from Egypt and given His people the promised land. As New Testament believers those “glorious deeds” are not only deliverance from Egypt, but above all the way God has delivered us from bondage to Satan and sin through Jesus Christ. These are not isolated from each other. Rather, the one is part of the other and foreshadows the other.

Closely related to the account of these glorious deeds are the commands the LORD has given. It is a solemn duty of Christian parents to teach their children how to walk in the way of covenantal obedience. This can only be fruitfully done against the background of the LORD’s love as shown in Christ. Notice how Asaph adds the reason for this instruction: “they should not be like their fathers”! The rest of Psalm 78 gives a description of the “fathers” and their unfaithfulness. By thorough instruction in the LORD’s mighty works, His promises and His commands, the next generation is to be equipped to serve the LORD. Once the baton has been pressed in their hands, their turn will come to pass it on to their children.

We see then the tremendous responsibility of one generation to the next. There is need for much instruction. Knowledge of the LORD’s promises and demands is not passed on genetically. There is no such thing as a Christian gene or chromosome. Our children are conceived and born in sin. The Spirit promises to work in them, but He uses the means of instruction. It is all part of His regenerating work through the Word, which alone is the seed of regeneration.

We must remind ourselves from time to time of this relay race in which God has placed us. It presses upon the parenting generation their great responsibility. They are runners, in the process of handing over the baton. It would not be surprising if there is tension, even a degree of fear in the hearts of parents as they are in the process of handing over the baton. There is daily need to pray for strength to run faithfully. This relay race should make each generation very conscious that they cannot just assume that their children know and understand why they should do certain things. To the next generation many things may appear as custom and tradition, which they do not understand and therefore do reluctantly. Children may wonder: Why do we belong to a Reformed Church? Why do we go to a Canadian Reformed School? Why are children baptized in our church, and does that make any difference? Why can we not join just any labour or employee organization? Why is dancing not an acceptable Christian pastime? Why do parents consider certain kinds of music inappropriate? This, of course, is only a sampling of many doctrinal and practical questions the younger generation may have.

Though it may cause parents a headache at times, children have every right to ask their parents: Why should we believe in this way? Why should we or shouldn’t we do this? This is not necessarily a sign of rebellion; it is a sign things have not been clearly explained to them. So it might be that the next generation does the right thing, but they do it out of custom. When challenged, they don’t know why. When the time comes to teach their children, they might try to hand over the baton but it is incomplete. That will make the next generation even more vulnerable.

We all are in this covenant relay race. It is of course possible that a generation grows up which knows God’s promises and demands, and yet rejects them deliberately. Such a situation is beyond the responsibility of the parenting generation. In the meantime, it is incumbent upon the active, running, parenting generation to tell the next generation of the LORD’s promises and demands: and to explain, explain, explain. Many things might have become second nature because parents have learned through personal struggle and conflict what is right and wrong in terms of doctrine and lifestyle. Yet, it is not enough to sigh to our children, “Don’t you know better? Doesn’t history teach you?” Children are not born filled with knowledge. It is the task of parents to fill them with knowledge of the ways of the LORD.

Let us encourage one another to run well and as we pass the baton so that the next generation might know of the glorious deeds of the LORD and the baton might be firmly planted in their hand to pass on to their children.