Family Lessons 86: Father, Son & Holy Rose

A strange document exists in the Lancashire Record Office pertaining to a financial transaction between Thurstan De Cruse and John de Cruse, my ancestors of 23 and 24 generations back:

Grant from Thurstan fil. [son of] John de Cruce of Wygan to John de Cruce, his father, for the term of his natural life, of all the messuages lands and tenements which the said Thurstan had of the gift of the said John, except a messuage and curtilage which Agnes Hornby held for a term of years, and except six acres of land lying in Wygan heghes, called the Lomy halvacre and the Hengande halv acre, and except five acres of land lying next these, and except the third part of a certain heye called Le Eclives ; Rendering a Rose yearly at the Nativity of St. John Baptist to the grantor and his heirs, and to the chief lord of the town of Wygan the services due and accustomed. Witnesses:

Richard de Ines, Adam de Pemberton, John de Chysenhale, William Gilibrond, John fil. Hugh, Henry de ffulshagh, Richard the clerk, and others. Given at Wygan on St. Margaret's day [20th July], 19 Edw. II. [1325].

Evidently, Thurstan gave to his father, John, a landed estate (which he had presumably acquired from John in the first place). Previous research showed that John had been pursued for a large sum of money (£1100, which is over a million in today’s values), so he had likely fallen on hard times. Normally, a father passes wealth to a son; here, a son passes wealth to a father. And in return for all those lands until the old man’s death? Payment of a rose to Thurstan each June the 24th. Not a bad rent!

We know that Christ, God the Son, purchased people for God the Father. At the end of time, a redeemed people are presented to the Father by the Son- all those whom He bought. In Revelation 5:9, the singing multitude declare:

And have redeemed us to God by Your blood

Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation…” (NKJV)

Paul writes in Colossians 1:21-22: And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight (NKJV)

There is a sense in which the Son delivers the redeemed to the Father- what Paul calls ‘the Kingdom’ in 1 Corinthians 15:24. The Son purchases us with His own blood for the Father’s pleasure and glory. Thurstan may have given landed wealth to his father, but Christ brings what was once worthless dross to His, having then washed them with His blood and sanctified them with His Spirit. Truly, we are worth more to our Heavenly Father than all the lands in Wigan. And whatever we give now to Christ is but a peppercorn rent, a token offering- a simple rose. 

Image by Peggychoucair from Pixabay