When Rebecca and I were preparing to get married we spent time with the minister talking about our families, what things we felt our families did well and the things we thought our families didn’t do well. By taking time like this to ‘remember’ our past, we could learn from it and continue to grow. I hope one day our children take the time to reflect on our family life and identify what we do that they like and don’t like so that they too can learn and grow. Perhaps in a few generations they will be able to create the perfect family.

There’s certainly a sense of truth to the idea that history repeats itself. Mark Twain once said, “no occurrence is sole and solitary, but is merely a repetition of a thing which has happened before.” In reality however, history doesn’t repeat itself, instead, people repeat history. It’s true that people are less likely to repeat the mistakes of history if they learn from them. In order to learn from the mistakes of history it is necessary to know what they were and to remember them. Perhaps the most famous quote about history comes from George Santayana who said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This is why we spent the time reflecting on our family life, to examine what we have seen and what we have been taught, so that we do not repeat the things that haven’t been helpful.

This week we turn to Romans chapter 9 where Paul takes a backward step to consider the Jewish people, his extended family. He relates their history of faith in God and he is devastated because they have largely rejected Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah and are therefore not experiencing the blessings of his salvation. Join us this Sunday at 10am as we read about Paul’s ‘family’ and a particular pattern of behaviour that if we don’t learn from, we will be doomed to repeat.