Vertical or horizontal

I have just been reading the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles again. In thinking of the way in which all the tribes are listed going through the generations I was suddenly aware that we look at things differently today. No longer do we think vertically in terms of different generations springing from the same family line in the way the Bible does. Nowadays we categorize people in large groups, children, young people, middle aged and the elderly. There are of course some reasons for this but it is a fundamentally different way of thinking and affects how we understand relationships. It also affects how we think of our churches. We struggle to cater for all age groups in our church life and worship because we think in unbiblical terms. We wonder how we can integrate the horizontal bands, but overlook our identity as all descended from Adam and all one in Christ. There is no easy way to recalibrate our thinking, and modern life militates against it in many ways, but we ought at least to try.