"Don't Forget The Past"

There are so many small moments that God can use to effect a person. I learned quickly that if one is not looking and listening for Him, complacency creeps into every corner of one’s life. Every day, on the walk to the dining facility I pass by an old building and a large bunker. I never pay any attention to these two structures, save there use as landmarks as to how many more mud puddles I have to dodge until I can eat. However, for some reason today I looked at the old building and thought it looked vaguely familiar.
A long time ago in a very small town in northern Colorado, there was a bank. This bank must have been a source of security and point of pride for the rural community of farmers that frequented this little bank. This bank brought respectability to the town and validation that these farmers were not forgotten from the rest of the world. These farmer’s investments, whether in land, stock, or equipment were just as valuable as any in the big city. And so this little bank remained as a landmark through the years, long after the town had moved and the people migrated to better land.
As a child I remember exploring around this old bank. Now destroyed, the only standing part of the town is the vault of the bank. My imagination vividly painted scenes of what this old vault must experienced as it stood alone on the prairie of northern Colorado.
Twenty years later, with my M16 and dressed in ACU’s I turn around and look straight at this old building I have passed by many times before and find myself transported back to that old bank. God whispers, “Don’t forget the past.” Here I am in a town in northern Iraq imagining what this old building has seen in its lifetime. What amazing things have taken place on this very soil. I can’t fathom what Jonah must have felt as God told him, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” Jonah 4:10-11.
This great city needs the Lord now as they did then. I’m reminded of that every day 5 times a day: Once two hours before sunrise, once at dawn, once at noon, once at sunset, and finally two hours after the sun goes down. As God shines over me, may the impression I leave be greater than the person I am.
What a great old building.