They say nostalgia isn't what it used to be. I prefer to think that hindsight is a wonderful thing. However I do think we are more interested in the past than we think and for some it probably borders on obsessiveness. On our local television channel, another series of UTV Rewind has just started that gives us glimpses into earlier years and I think I'm more fascinated by the clothes and hairstyles of presenters in their bygone days than the events they are reporting. Many of our other television channels fill their schedules with repeats and indeed some stations are dedicated to old programmes. One of my favourites is the ESPN sports channel that allows sports fanatics to watch old football and rugby matches as well as snippets of other sports and their stars. And you know so many of the games are such a distant memory that it's almost like watching them for the first time, except for the retro skips and hairstyles. But it doesn't end there. Everyday, for the last fifteen years in school, I have started the morning with my class by sharing some snippets from a book called 'On This Day'. Each page is dedicated to one day of the year and summarises the main world events that have happened on that particular date in history. Some of the things we talk about are recent enough for me to remember but many are too long in the past, while for the children, everything is new. My only problem is that I now need to update the book because so many important events have happened since it was first published and there are enough recent additions that some of the pupils would remember and of course, add to their interest.
Of course as we get older, there are more yesterdays to recall, though not all with affection and I guess there are many yesterdays that we'd prefer hadn't happened or would like to rewrite while many others bring back a great sense of satisfaction and pleasure. Either way they are all part of our personal history, filling the huge dairy that we call life. And there are no days that something isn't recorded. But so often our view of the present is linked to the past and we cling to our yesterdays with a mixture of regret and fondness, suggesting that they were so much better than today. Nowhere more evident is this than in the sporting world where I listen to a whole posse of former sports stars ridiculing the game they once graced and minimising the success of their present day equivalents. It often starts with the phrase, 'in my day' and you know immediately that their comparison of old and new is viewed through very coloured glass. The truth is that while each of our own eras has had much to offer, each also has had its disadvantages and maybe we need to take a little from each generation to see the bigger and better picture. In our province, yesterday is always linked with the sectarian trouble that occupied many of our days and I can remember many yesterdays when I knew a victim by name or personally. As we remember those who lost their lives in one such horrific example, exactly ten years ago, we do so by also thinking about every other family whose today is always filled with the memories of a yesterday they wish had never happened.
The writer of Hebrews reminds us that 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.' But He is not interested in our yesterdays and what we did in them and because He doesn't change with time, the gift of salvation He offers is always available. If we accept His gift, that forgiveness He gives includes wiping away all the wrongs of yesterday, all the sins of the past. Isaiah writes 'Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past' and that is exactly what we can do because God forgives and forgets. He takes away our past and buries it forever. Your yesterday can remain there to be remembered no more.
