IN DICKENS’ “Great Expectations”, Miss Haversham's life is defined by a wedding that never happened.
Betrayed by Compeyson, she has the clocks in Satis House stopped at 8.40am, the moment that she received his letter, and leaves the wedding breakfast on the table. Wearing her wedding dress every day, she has literally paused her life. She is living in the past.
The lesson, in this extreme example, is that we should not allow our future to be defined by our past. Whilst there may be much in our past, both good and bad, that we will never forget and should learn from, the past is not a place for living.
In the Bible, the elderly Sarah had to overcome her childless past to embrace God’s promise; “Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Genesis 18:14 (NASB). A year later Sarah gave birth to Isaac and, after years of being defined as “barren”, she became a mother.
The lesson of Miss Haversham and Sarah for 2015 is that while we can learn from the past, we cannot live in it.
–Rev Graham Owen
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