Welcome to the Future

 When you were a little kid, did you ever contemplate what your life would be like when you reached this month and this year?  For some of us, who have seen many years, living in the 2000s was beyond our imagination.  Science fiction was just that – fiction.  Superman’s wrist radio stretched our belief of what was even possible.  When your heart stopped, that was it.  Standing on the moon was a little out of reach.  Buying groceries, baked goods, meat and medicine involved four separate trips.  We stand in awe of the evolution of our way of life.
    One thing we really miss is the quiet of a Sunday.  When stores were closed and people visited each other’s homes after attending church.  And indeed, the Sabbath was a day of rest.  As we watch the deterioration of our society, with violence, distrust and immorality rampant, and constantly brought to our attention by the media, we wonder at what point God will give up on us.  
    Although, as Christians, we tend to concentrate on the words of the New Testament, it’s good to be knowledgeable about the history of the Hebrews in the Old Testament.  Reading the events of the years spent awaiting the coming of the Messiah, it is, at this distance, appalling to read of the cycles in which the Hebrews were led by kings who would be “doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord” only then be succeeded by kings who “wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him … and turned their backs.”  God sent prophets to warn the people, but they wouldn’t listen.  Which would be followed by God’s allowing the conquest of the Hebrews and much suffering at the hands of the pagan nations around them, until the children of Israel would cry to God in penitence.
    There is a saying, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”  One wonders if our society, founded on such lofty principles, will have to go through this entire process before we, too, cry out to God in penitence.     Pray,         witness,      love.                                                                                      Virginia                                                                    Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it:
except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.   Psalm 127:1