The poet Steve Turner once wrote: ‘History repeats itself; has to; no one listens.’
How true and how tragic these words are. We need history and we need to remember, lest we forget the futility of so many wars that have taken place since almost the beginning of time.
History is the story of who we are and is littered with lessons of how we should and shouldn’t relate to one another. However, it would seem that most of the time mankind refuses to listen!
As I write this blog, our world continues to be torn apart by warring factions, many of which don’t make headline news in the western world. Countless people are dying on a daily basis and lie buried in unknown graves. Simply, another statistic of man’s hatred towards another, often being disguised under the names of ‘justice’ and ‘our security.’
However, if we take the time to stop and listen, we may just find that history is whispering something else to us.
Almost three thousand years ago the prophet Isaiah spoke these words:
‘A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’
These words were spoken 700 years later by John the Baptist as he pointed people to Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world.
Isaiah also spoke of how Jesus name would be, ‘wonderful counsellor; mighty God; everlasting Father; prince of peace.’ He came speaking of grace and forgiveness; a love that knows know ends.
May I be as bold as to suggest that, in the midst of the turmoil our world finds itself in today, with all our so called sophisticated advances, we pause to remember the simple message of how God so loved the world that he gave us His Son Jesus. To remember too how he taught us to live and to love well; how to forgive as we have been forgiven and, to be peacemakers where we find ourselves on a day to day basis.
As we remember may we also pause long enough to learn.
