Did you know that there is a kind of remembering that is bad? Are you aware that there is a way of recalling the “good old days” that leads to disaster?
Of course, there are ways that Christians are commanded to remember. After Israel crossed the Jordan, God directed them to build a monument of stones. When the children asked why the pile of stones was there, they were to remember in the right way that God delivered them.
But, Israel was also guilty of remembering in the wrong way. In Numbers 11 they complained that they would rather go back to the leeks and onions in Egypt. It was a ridiculous moment on their part. In Egypt, they were slaves for crying out loud. But, they had convinced themselves that the good old days in Egypt were far better than the good old days ever were. They airbrushed their memories, and made them into a kind of sentimental pornography, so that they centered not in where God was taking them in the future, but in a nostalgic fiction that never existed in the first place.
Too many times, those who have been Christians for many years, pine for the leeks and onions of the “good old days.” To be sure, we should always remember how God has delivered us in the past. But, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. God is taking us to a better country. The truly good days are right in front of us. And, we can look forward to a time where there will be no more leeks and onions from either the past or the present.
