The way we never were

Sunday October 1st, Numbers 11: 4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!" We all tend to remember the parts of the past that we want to remember. Stephanie Coontz in her book, “The way we never were” does an excellent job of explaining the development of family structures in the U.S. over time and how they existed in their complete form, and what other elements of society existed in order to maintain those systems. It is too easy to look at the antebellum south family structure for example, with the big houses, fancy dresses and people waiting on you and not see the subjugation of women, and the large number of slaves that were required to maintain that lifestyle. The Israelites wanted the cucumbers, melons and leeks, but had forgotten the slavery, beatings and death that came with living there. The Gospel calls us to look forward, not back. It calls us to see our salvation, the gift given to us by God, and then live our present life in that reality. It is a call to live our lives as a member of the family of God, not a bunch of individuals who have found God along with a bunch of individuals who are going to be lift behind. Assured of our salvation and glimpsing our life as a part of the family of God, we can start to live this life out of love, not greed.