Where Have You Left Your DNA?

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2023 Blog #29

July 17, 2023

Where Have You Left Your DNA?

Those of us in the North Jersey area have been inundated with one news story during this weekend. The story was the arrest of an architect from Long Island who has been accused of being the “Gilgo Beach Killer.” This has been a case that has haunted this area since the disappearance of a woman in 1996. Ultimately the bodies of 11 women were found in this area and the man who was arrested has now been charged with 6 murders.

How law enforcement officers came to identify the suspect and arrest him is rather complex story of pain-staking and methodical police work. I listened to a press conference by the Suffolk County Executive who announced the arrest and described some of the investigative procedures that were undertaken. I was amazed at the persistent hard labor that the law enforcement officials performed. One piece of evidence was crucial and led to the arrest. Police obtained the suspects DNA where matched DNA from hair left on several of the victims. The suspect had left a DNA trail wherever he went.

Don’t we all leave such a DNA trail as we walk through life? Wherever we go and whatever we do we leave our DNA. We leave our mark. Where do we leave it? What have we been doing in these places? My grandmother and other older women in my childhood neighborhood. told the young people on the block many things. Among them:

1. No matter where you go, someone is always watching you. Behave yourself!
2. God knows what you are doing. Always do the right thing.
3. Don’t go anywhere you wouldn’t want to be found dead in.
4. Act so that people will want you to come back.

Yes, we leave our DNA wherever we go. Where have we left our DNA? Have we left it comforting a troubled child? Have we left it building a house for a family in need? Have we left it encouraging someone who was depressed? Will we be remembered for being the customer who spread joy and peace? Is our DNA sitting in a place where we fed needy, hungry people?

We leave a legacy of the places we go and the things that we do. Let us leave a good legacy and a good trail.

#ReformedChurchInAmerica                                 #PastorMarkAuthor            

#BergenCounty                                                        #BergenfieldNJ

#Legacy                                                                     #DNA

#Deeds                                                                      #Scrutiny

To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:

www.pastormarkauthor.com