Translating Your Past: Finding Meaning in Family Ancestry, Genetic Clues, and Generational Trauma - Hardcover

by Michelle Van Loon (Author)

Uncover the spiritual strength of your family story.

We all have a desire to learn more about where we've come from, and technology has made this more possible than ever. But our family stories are more than a list of DNA results on a piece of paper or a bunch of fading Kodachrome images filling old photo albums.

In an era often marked by both fragmentation in family and culture and a hunger to discover our genetic roots, our family stories--including the difficult, complex ones--can carry great spiritual strength. The desire to trace, interpret, and pass on our family's history is embedded in Scripture from beginning to end--there are nine genealogies found in the book of Genesis alone. When we bring together the various threads of our family stories with Scripture's insights, they can provide the key to decoding our identity and helping us discover our place in family, church, and world.
​
In Translating Your Past, author Michelle Van Loon helps readers uncover how patterns and gaps in family histories, generational trauma, adoption, genetic clues and surprises, spiritual history, and the church help us translate our own pasts and understand why these stories matter. Each chapter includes questions designed for individual reflection or small group discussion, as well as an appendix of helpful tools readers can use to translate their own pasts and create meaning in order to transform their unique family history into living, faith-filled heritage.

Author Biography

Michelle Van Loon's deeply rooted faith in Christ, secular Jewish heritage, spiritual hunger, and storyteller's sensibilities inform her creative, carefully crafted writing. She's published six books including Becoming Sage: Cultivating Meaning, Purpose, and Spirituality in Midlife (Moody 2020), Born to Wander: Recovering the Value of our Pilgrim Identity (Moody, 2018), Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith (NavPress, 2016), and If Only: Letting Go Of Regret (Beacon Hill, 2014), which won an award of merit in the Christian Living category in Christianity Today's 2015 Book Of The Year listing.

Michelle has been a regular contributor at Christianity Today and In Touch magazine and has a wide range of published work including curriculum, devotionals, articles, and plays. She is a founding member of The Pelican Project, a women's theology organization, and the co-founder of www.ThePerennialGen.com, a website for midlife women and men.