Looking Both Ways, Part 1

There has come a point in life, now that I have walked pretty far down the road, when I know I have more years behind me than I have ahead.  Memories pile up and as they multiply, tempt me.

Memories exist always in the present tense.  They are always so THERE--prancing in anticipation of attention like a three-year-old.  I settle into them sometimes, reliving old days in either delight or regret, feeling every swell and twinge all over again.

But God does not exist behind us...He waits before.


When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it...the King must not acquire a great number of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord told you, "You are not to go back that way again."--Deuteronomy 17: 14,16

I am not to go back that way again. 

Memories fall into one of two categories:  sinful, that is, ones for which I must repent and allow God to put behind both our backs, and ones constructive in the sight of God, which I lay at His feet as a sacrifice of homage and thanksgiving.  In either case, I have to remember that, when I first walked into my Lord's throne room, He helped me close the door by which I entered. That door closed on many things, one of which was the power of those memories.

I am not to remember primarily what I did, good or bad, but what God did.  

This applies to my husband, my children, and my work, both in the Kingdom and in the world.  Reliving the day when my sons took their first step, or my wedding day, or the day I got my first car bring warm feelings, but I cannot attach too much affection or importance to them.  Remembering what God did through those and other circumstances...now, that has some value.

Our Lord's rear view mirror shows His face alone.
Part 2