Luke 1:54-55 NLT

'He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.'

I am a very present person. I often delete the past quickly from my mind. As one friend said, “Micha, you really don’t do nostalgia, do you!” I am quite sentimental, and tear up easily enough, but I don’t have a great attachment to my past. I am not that future-focused either. I really grasp Jesus’ words that today has enough troubles, so forget about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). I lived with this mindset long before I was a Christian. My challenge is that I can easily get ‘stuck’ in my perception of my present reality, and this has a deep impact upon my mood, behaviour and performance.

Mary, facing challenging personal circumstances, now gazes back and locates God as the initiator and carer for the Israelites throughout history. She has a healthy regard and understanding of her roots, and therefore the wonderful ways in which God had ensured her and her family now occupied the earth where once her ancestors stood. This is something I have taken quite seriously over the last few years. Where once, as an avid reader, I devoured the latest Christian books, I established a preference for reading what the Church Fathers and our Christian forebears had written. I am less caught up in answers to contemporary questions, and my understanding has expanded to appreciate the ways in which God has walked with us through all our history. This is the same God who is with us today, less concerned about contemporary issues than our development.

QUESTION: In what ways do you draw wisdom from the well of the past?

PRAYER: Lord God, thank you for your faithful promises to your people which are yes and amen in Jesus.