Nostalgia

[280 words]

Nostalgia has a selective memory. When we feel this, “sentimental longing” for the past we often remember the good times fondly and forget the hardships. Many hit songs use nostalgia as a theme: “Yesterday,” “Time in a Bottle,” “Those Were the Days,” “If l Could Tum Back Time,” “Yesterday When I WasYoung,” and many more. In fact, it almost seems that every other country and western song also stresses this idea.

As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3, “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven … ” One can imagine the pangs of nostalgia that Adam and Eve must have had for the Garden of Eden after being banished from it. The Israelites very soon were longing for the “melons, leeks, onions and garlic” of Egypt as they walked through the desert (Numbers 11:5). The exiles in Babylon mourned when remembering the former glory of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1-4). When the foundations of the new temple were laid, many of the older priests who had seen the former temple, wept aloud (Ezra 3:12). Jesus remembered His Heavenly home and “the glory that I had with you (The Father) before the world began” (John 17:15).

God can use even this seemingly self-absorbed emotion for good. Jesus told the church at Ephesus that they had forsaken their first love. “Remember the height from which you have fallen. Repent and do the things you did at first” (Rev. 2:4-5). If we, as God’s children today, will use this type of nostalgia and examine where we stand today in comparison to when we first handed our lives over to Jesus, we can regain the zeal and love we need for the rest of our journey to eternity.