THIRD WAVE FAMILIES!

THIRD WAVE FAMILIES!

Isa 1:2

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

Alvin Toffler has written an insightful book titled The Third Wave. Toffler suggests there are three eras, three periods of history, and three waves in American culture. Then he reflects on the implications of these three waves for the individual, the family, the church, and for society at large.

The first wave was agricultural wave: Little House on the Prairie, squatters' rights, the simple pioneer lifestyle; men planting crops and building a home; grandmas and grandpas, uncles and aunts living nearby, often in the same home. This is the period where the family might be called a “clan.”

The second wave was the industrial wave, when families moved from the country into the city. They moved from developing farms and croplands with their own hands to becoming part of a larger corporation, working with machinery and developing technology. The extended family was not always nearby. Often they were scattered in different and far away cities. Now we spoke of the nuclear family. The family became smaller; a husband and wife with two or three children was a family in the second wave.

The third wave could be called the information wave--the wave of computers, fax machines, and mass media. In this wave we see growing affluence on the one hand, a growing poverty on the other, and a shrinking middle class. The fast-paced, driven third wave has tremendous implications for the family.

Gone, for the most part, is the idyllic mornings begun by the crowing of the rooster and the smell of bacon, coffee and wood smoke. It has been replaced by the cold chrome sound of an electronic panic that awakens you to Pop Tarts, instant coffee and the dusty smell of the furnace.

Communication is via electronic texts and voicemail. The human voice with all its ancillary communication and warmth is mostly lost. The result is a language without color and texture and emotion. The sound of actual laughter has been replaced by a quick “LOL” or a more robust “ROFL.”

Perhaps it is time to cancel all appointments, turn off all the machines, take your loved one by the hand, look intently into their eyes and … talk. Listen to their fears, their hopes and their loves.

Ps 68:5-6

5 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

6 God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

Father, as one of your children, let me draw close enough to feel your warmth. Let me hear your voice and even smell your scent. Let me know your heart and enjoy the comfort of your closeness. AMEN