My father always told me that my pedigree came from a long list of a duke's mixture. In his colorful explanation, that meant our family could trace our history through the Germans, Scots, Dutch, Irish, Native Americans and Jewish. "Don't try to find them, son. We came from a jaded past, which means oddballs and horse thieves."

Not too long ago, Julie enrolled me in a historical something or other that would take my DNA and find out just where I might have come from.

I was actually shocked to find out that my true ancestor — earliest anyway and with the best DNA match — just happened to be Niall Noigiallach or Nial of the Nine Hostages. He was a legendary, semi-historical Irish king. Yes, I know what legendary and semi-historical means. He was also the grandson of King Conn — no, that's not King Kong — of the Hundred Battles.

If we do some biblical research, we'll find that God first created Adam. Adam wasn't an Oxford grad and needed some help, so God then created Eve, a rather inquisitive woman who not only completed Adam, but got humankind into a passel of problems.

God eventually decided to eliminate most of our first ancestors, but left Noah and his family to start anew.

All this complex history tells us that we have to claim every human being on earth came from the basket of humanity. That means we are all related, like it or not, and we have to own, like it or not, with our differences and our oddities. We're just one great big bunch of the same DNA!

Where we differ is just as complex. Where did you come from and when did you get your start and where are you now? I suppose I could make up a neat questionnaire for you to fill in the spaces so I could then follow your history. You might begin, "I was born in a cab, on a train, at the local hospital, a log cabin, aboard a ship in the middle of a monsoon, hurricane, tornado, drought, war ... you name it."

The list can go on and on until I get a pretty clear picture of your humble beginnings. I want to know as much about you when it comes to what you like to do, have to do and want to do.

You might tell me that you follow in your parent's footsteps and work in the family business or that you were a maverick and left home to find the meaning of life, get an education, be recognized, become a movie star, travel the world and discover your calling. Maybe, just maybe, you found that illusive something and after many long-lost weekends or lost years returned home to find that nothing had changed, no one missed you and life is not a mystery but a routine.

I have come to believe that the greatest mystery is not life. The greatest mystery is people who look everywhere for reality while reality is inside each and every one of us.

It is the acceptance of life. God has given us this mystery and allowed us to make way too many choices as we travel from here to there. However — and this is what makes life a joy — we can open every door we choose. It is the quest, the search, the chance, the discovery. And folks, just knowing that God is with us from here to there makes the trip worthwhile. God was there when we were born, lost our first tooth, put our hand on the burner, fell in love, lost a job, moved to a new town, found we had cancer, buried a friend and got old.

"Cannot we trust such a God to give us everything that we need?"

From humble beginnings, we are travelling to eternity and perhaps that is what life has been teaching us and our experiences are simply preparing us for what is yet to be.

My brain is beginning to hurt and I think I need to stop while I am still ahead.

You are a marvelous and remarkable part of life and life would not exist or would not have existed without you.

Thanks, God!