Nostalgia

 "We remember the fish we ate freely and without cost in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic." Numbers 11:5

Amplified Bible (AMP)

I like cucumbers as much as the next guy but there's a time when we have to get over our nostalgia. 

Looking back on yesteryear, it is possibly that a willowy cloud of fondness can taint our perception of the truth. I'm an especially romantic person and easily fall victim to the yearning for the good old days, those finer times when youth roamed freely in the street, neighbors gathered on front porches and faces weren't concealed behind the blue light of a screen reflection. Yes those fond days of pestilence, starvation and hardship. That time when people died of diseases that could have been easily prevented by the washing of hands. Those better times when people just fell over dead in the field like Matthew Cuthbert, and were spared the indecencies of early prevention measures, the causes of their death remaining a mystery. 

Obviously when I actually think about it, I am grateful for indoor plumbing, the preservation of food in modern cold storage and the ability to talk to friends across the world at a moments notice. I love being able to travel anywhere around the globe within a day, have a machine wash my clothes and dishes, and find the answer to almost any question at the touch of a button. 

This is truly the best time to be alive!

And yet, we wonder. We think that our current weapons technology has increased violence. We wonder if access to instant online sexual gratification is eroding the moral values of family. We feel that the bonds of human connection and perhaps the ability to coherently communicate face to face are being threatened by entertainment spoon fed to us by sources with questionable motives. At least I do. 

Yet when I think long and hard and look to the moral compass of the word of God, I see that these problems are nothing new. Violence, immorality, and selfishness are not components of a modern world wrought with the crisis of technology. They are age old problems bound up in the sinful heart of man. Apart from God, we have serious issues. We always have. Always will. These problems are not caused by, nor can they be solved by modern interventions. 

Just like the Israelites forgot to look at the scars of their oppression and only hungered for what was good about their past, we can get a convoluted view of our history. There was much that was good about our past as well, but God has so much more for us. It's important that we remember that where we are headed, the path to freedom and promise, is worth all of the sacrifice it requires of us in the moment. Better things are coming!