If any of you have been on Face book lately you have seen a number of "growing up in…" or "remembering when …". There is one for Cherokee and it has drawn some attention. There are pictures of our town when it was at a different day. Many recall the events of the past including people who did certain things and lived during a certain era. I have learned some things about Cherokee that I did not know.

It’s fun going back and reminiscing about the "good old days" when things were a lot simpler. You know, the days before indoor plumbing, microwave ovens, computers, cell phones, game boys, Wii’s and a host of other things. It’s good to recall the people that we grew up with. Sometimes we are so hurried today, we forget about the past and those who helped to shape us.

However, there are times that we can get too caught up in the past that we forget where we are going. It happened to the Israelites. They had been delivered from bondage to the nation of Egypt. Moses was leading them to a new land. The way was hard and the people began to murmur. They did not have food, many times water, and the past looked so appealing to them that they began to yearn for it. In Exodus 16:3 we read of them grumbling. "The sons of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

In the past they had meat and bread. They remembered this. In the past they were servants to the Egyptians. They were ill treated by this nation, but it seems they forgot that. God had something amazing planned for them and they are only remembering the past.

We have a future. We can talk about how it used to be, but I would venture to say that we don’t want to go back to the old way of doing things. We must especially not go back to the sinful ways we once partook of (2 Peter 2:20-22). As we move forward, let’s thank God for His loving care for us. Let’s focus on what lies ahead not what is behind.