When the suitcase is exploding with memories, it is easy to hoard, obsess and become haunted by the memories of an idealised past that was almost perfect. But for the suitcase that remains in the hallway; in the misty cloud of almost. Engulfed in the effulgent light of the wormhole passage, our memories become short-circuited, into a foggy distortion as to their true nature. It is within the distortion of the wormhole, that a memory gap and error is created, anent to the narrative for the suitcase in the hallway. In the fog and distortion of yesterday, a wormhole of dependency to travel back into our memories is constructed. In this wormhole, moving backward in time, we lose sight of the miracles arriving within our today.
Reversing through time within our thoughts, we move against the gravity of life and the clock, not realising that we are only stealing from our future. The events that led to the suitcase in the hallway occurred because they were not supposed to be in our story of today. As paraphrased, in 1 John 2:19, if they went from you, then they did not really belong to you. For if they had belonged to you, then they would have remained with you; but their going showed that they did not belong to you. Hoarding our past memories puts an injunction on the greater things that God has in store for us. The closing of the door leads us to that which we could never dream for ourselves. Isaiah 22:22 says “…When God opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when He closes doors, no one will be able to open them.” Simply put, if the door closes, God has a better door that He plans to open, one which we cannot even begin to fathom.
The paradigm of Sodom and Gomorrah, a city anchored in sin, whose inhabitants were bent on harming Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and his family, illustrates this idea of our distortion of the memories we hold within our suitcases. The city said to Lot, “Get out of our way … This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” And, bringing pressure upon Lot, “moved forward to break down his door” (Genesis 19:9). Yet, because of the clouded past recollections Lot had of a perfect town, he and his family remained loyal to it, even in the face of such a septic environment.
Our memories are not always as accurate as they seem in the misty cloud of the wormhole. Lot’s relationship with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah was harmful and needed to be destroyed. God went as far as to send His angels to save Lot and his family from this toxic environment and relationship with the town, but despite being warned of the dangers of remaining within this poisonous environment, Lot and family did not want to leave. They were comfortable in this environment.
Genesis 19:16–17 says that they hesitated leaving to the point that the angels had to grab their hands and lead them safely out of the city saying, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” However, even being dragged from Sodom and Gomorrah by angels, Lot and his family remained so blinded by their past memories that they could not even imagine living far from them. Thus Lot said to the angels, “Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it…” (Genesis 19:20). Lot held on so tight to his clouded memories of the past that he left the suitcase in the hallway, doing himself, his family and his future, no favours.
The commandment was simple, “Don’t look back!” Your future is not in your past. Your future is in your tomorrow. And your tomorrow is where God has promised that He has great plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11). When we cling to the past and look back, we lose sight of the great future God has for us and risk turning into a pillar of salt just as Lot’s wife did when she looked back (Genesis 19:26).
The problem is not about letting go of the memories in the suitcase, but rather, moving forward and creating new memories; moving the suitcase out of the hallway and in line with our future path. Don’t be held captive to your past. We must trust that God always has better in store for us, for His plans cannot be thwarted by anyone’s departure from our story.
©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.
