Our Past

Mark 6:3
Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. (NIV)

Sometimes we have occasion to be reacquainted with people from our past. It is like we have entered a black hole and ended up in another time. We know nothing about them in the present so all of our observations are made through the filter of who they were. They just appear older, but that same person is still inside. Or is it?

We are who we are because of the paths we chose. Just because we started at one place does not mean we stayed there. Some do. They grow up in one place and fifty years later they are in that same place. And they may not be in the same location physically, but the they are in their thoughts and actions. Who they have become is an older version of who they were.

When we received Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, our spirit man became born again. Change began. It may not have been apparent externally, but with the help of Holy Spirit, our thinking shifted. We began to see people differently. Our reactions to circumstances around us changed. We began to see things as Christ sees things and yet others still see us as who we were.

As He leads us into new territory, places where our past is unknown, we are who we have become. We testify to who we were, but that just becomes part of our story. It becomes encouragement to others as they struggle to grow from their past into their future in Him.

With God all things are possible. He knows who we were, who we are now, and who we will become. We grow as we keep our eyes on Him and move further away from our past.