This could easily be an ancient way of communicating epigenetics, the science discovered by Dr. Bruce Lipton: Everyone's life began in their grandmother's womb when their mother developed all of the eggs she would ever have. The way that grandparents responded to stressors in life are genetically transferred to the mother's eggs, (not the mother's DNA) and becomes part and parcel of her childrens genetic *expression*. We are *not* our genes, but we most definitely are our grandparents *expression/responses to stressors.
The past is a very good predictor of the future. In domestic settings I always trend towards my maternal grandmother's epigenetic low self-esteem in which she committed suicide on my mother's birthday when my mother was 5 months pregnant with me. Until I independently figured out how beliefs and DNA worked I could not sit still in a residence. I have a string of failed relationships because of that. Like my grandmother, my two siblings turned to alcohol and that's where they remain.
Me? I got the fuck outside. That's where my paternal grandfather's epigenetic response kicked in. He was 16 years old when his father died in a railroad roundhouse accident. 4 days later that 16 year old kid took on his father's job and worked it incident-free for 49 years. The eldest of 7, he put his 6 younger siblings through college before getting married. From him I get my analyticals gifts of figuring out how things and people are put together. This has served me extremely well through 50 years to figuring out to climb high level rock climbing routes and having a great time away from the house.
When I ever I feel down I know it's time to do yoga, go for a walk, pay attention to what I'm paying attention to, go for a ride, go bouldering, go run a trail run, just do anything but dwell on my grandmother's beliefs embedded in my DNA. Could this not also be Paul's classical "thorn in my side" that he was never delivered from? Couldn't this be stated back then as the war between flesh (epigenetics) and spirit (expression)?
I believe so, and therefore I can daily put on Christ. I can daily do all things through Him. I can daily remind myself that my new wine (expression) is in new wineskin (belief).
