As I walk through my home, there are so many things I treasure not because of their monetary value but because of the special family memories they bring to me. A quilt hangs on the wall that was made by my Great Grandmother. I have the lunchbox my Dad carried to school on horseback in Western Colorado. The harmonica that he used to play during family hikes on Grand Mesa is framed and on my wall. And at Christmas, I make gingerbread cookies with my Grandmother’s recipe and place them in the old Solitare Coffee container that she used for cookies.
All of these treasures make me long for the good old days, which brings me to one of my bad habits—homesickness. I tend to long for the past and remember only the good things—and the good things get even better with time! I remember that beautiful home in Kansas where I spent elementary school years. It had a wonderful front porch that became a boat or tree house depending on the activity of the day. I forget that the house could only be heated in winter with a series of little heaters. (The one in the hallway was often a source of stubbed toes in the middle of the night.) I forget that every fall my Dad had to put up heavy storm windows on each window in the house to conserve heat. In the spring, they had to be taken down and stored. I remember fondly the first house where my husband and I lived while he was in medical school. It was a lovely old 1920s bungalow with beautiful molding, hardwood floors, and kitchen cabinets with glass fronts. I tend to forget that at night our bedroom was lit up with the sign from Taco Bell, that it was located in a high crime area, that we lived on peanut butter, and that the only shower we had was a hose in the basement suspended from the rafters over a floor drain.
I’m not alone with this wanting to go back to the past. As Moses led his people out of Egypt, he to had to deal with their homesickness. Exodus 14:11-12 tells of his people’s longing to go back to Egypt rather than proceed to the Promised Land. As fear of the future and the unknown increased, slavery was remembered through rose-colored glasses and the people longed to return to the past. Lack of faith in God made the past seem more desirable than the future.
Is it wrong to look back with fond memories? I don’t think so, especially when we do so with thankfulness and gratitude for what God has given us. But too much longing for the past robs us of the joy of today and the gift of tomorrow. In Philippians 3:13-14, God calls us to press on toward the goal for which He has called us. It is a matter of balance between thankfulness for the past and joy for the future. As a new year approaches, may we cherish and honor our heritage while we look forward with joy to the future Christ has for us both personally and as a body of believers.
