The Beauty of the Past
Looking back gives us hope for the Future
This is the first post in a three-part series that I will be sharing over the next couple of weeks. Today's post will cover the Beauty of the Past. Later we will take a look at the Present and Future and the particular beauty that the Gospel gives us. I hope that this article enables many Christians to look back at their pasts and see how God has worked in their lives. This post will discuss two key points, the large-scale past (world history) and the small-scale past (personal history).
First, as Christians, the past serves as a reminder of God’s present faithfulness. We have a unique perspective on time that has been given to us by God primarily through His Word. We know how the world was made and we also know major points of history where God has revealed himself to be at work within those points. So as time on a grand scale, we can look back and see how God has been at work up till now. By faith, we believe that He is still at work and sovereign over current events. The beauty of it all is that when our current situations look bleak we can look back and see how faithful God has been and the promises that He has made and that reminds us that God is still very much at work. And when times are good we can rejoice and be glad because we readily recognize all the blessings that we are currently experiencing and we are encouraged by God once again.
Second, as we zoom in a bit closer on the scale, we can take our pasts and see the peculiar beauty that God has fashioned in our own lives. Every day that we live is a testament to God’s enduring faithfulness and His patience towards all of mankind and especially to us. Now we have started by seeing how God has been good to us already our entire lives. God's common grace enables us to enjoy our very existence (Acts 17.25b). Even amongst tragic events we can look back, most often with time, and see how God has turned that evil for good (Genesis 50.20). Here it is important to know and believe the character of God as revealed in the Bible. There is a lot of pain for people when it comes to their past, an accumulated lifetime of decisions, losses, and pain reside there. And most often, still felt even today. But as Christians, there is ultimate redemption, hope and glory to be found even there (2 Corinthians 5.1-6). To know and trust God is to surrender your life, all of it. Here we see that hope of beauty, when the bad turns for good we rejoice. When we don't understand why certain events happened, we hope. But the rejoicing and the hoping are in the same thing, both are in God and who He has said that He is. In Christ, we are more than conquerors knowing that we will have ultimate victory and redemption gives us the strength and hope to endure life.
On the positive side, when we survey the past and see the good that God has done, be it a marriage or any good memory it serves as a monument to God’s faithfulness. Much like how the Israelites were supposed to view the Exodus and the Passover, we are to view the Gospel as well as how God worked in the Old Testament in a way that reminds us of His faithfulness. These are things we can draw on and remember in our present. Joshua 1.5 is a beautiful example of this, God tells Joshua "No man shall be able to stand before you the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you." The author of Hebrews references this and follows it up with the addition of quoting Psalm 118.6 "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
Through Christ's faithfulness, we have the confidence to live for Him.
Third, the past serves as an opportunity to share with others so that they too may rejoice in God’s goodness. As Christians, we participate in communion as we remember the sacrifice of Christ and celebrate His resurrection. We are also drawn to think about the Israelites remembering how God brought them out of Egypt. So we too want to remember when and where God has blessed us. This is the beauty of the Gospel, how the good news does not end in a one-time decision that we file away and then live our normal lives. Rather, we are to actively remember our pasts from the perspective of God's enduring faithfulness rather than sticking to a man-centered point of view. I am reminded of 2 Timothy 2.13-14 "if we are faithless, he remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself. Remind them of these things, and charge them before God." Not only do we see that God is faithful even when we are not, but we are commanded to remind others of God's faithfulness. It is something that changes everything about us. We now interpret all of life through this new lens of God's enduring faithfulness in our pasts.
Ultimately, the past serves as a reminder that God is who says He is. We can view our past in hope of final redemption and the impending glorification with God in Heaven. This enables us to live and reconcile our pasts with our present and aids us in living into the future. God is present, even in our pasts, He continues to work, forgiving and healing and reconciling all things unto Himself (Colossians 1.20) As Christians, this is a monumental comfort. Nothing is outside of God’s jurisdiction, He is sovereign over all of it, the good and the bad. We know that God has ultimate victory over sin and evil, both the sin and evil that we commit in our past, as well as the sin and evil that we have suffered through. God does and will overcome it. This is the beauty of a broken past. And again, good memories serve as monuments and living testaments to God’s blessing and faithfulness that we are to share with others as well as rejoice in. This gives us present joy and future hope, as we can look back and see that God is there. As Christians, we can either see how He has redeemed things presently when we have perspective in this life, or how He will redeem them ultimately when we are glorified and He returns to right all wrongs.