Events in history on May 30th

1431 Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy

1498 Christopher Columbus made his third journey to America

1539 deSoto brought 10 ships that landed in Florida

1806 Andrew Jackson fought a duel with and killed Charles Dickenson who claimed that Jackson’s wife was a bigamist

1842 John Francis attempted assassination of Queen Victoria of England

1922 the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC

1967 Evel Knievel jumps his motorcycle over 16 cars

This is just a sampling of historical events that occurred over the last centuries. As I scrolled through the History Channel’s website, I was not surprised at the variety of humanity and situations faced over time. All its flaws haven’t changed much over time. I guess you could say, as King Solomon did thousands of years ago, that there is nothing new under the sun.

As we read books, go to movies or plays or study human behavior it’s easy to see a commonality in all the events that happen over time. We run the same gamut as those who inhabited the world so many years ago. The gamut may not be packaged in the same way, but we’re truly not any different today than we were after God’s people fell into sin.

The same story is being replayed over and over again. Much like the film “Groundhog Day,” we become victims of our circumstances, we struggle, we muddle through and do the same on the next day. The story of Romeo & Juliet has been rewritten ad infinitum. Do we really learn from our mistakes? Just as those circumstances should be leading us to better choices, we continue to fall in the same patterns that our ancestors did. History does repeat itself, not because we are reruns of past lives, but because we live in a world of darkness.

Evil will continue until we die. Sin is not erased as long as we live, but we have been forgiven when we confess our sins to God and walk on His path. As I grow older, I realize that our own history will teach us, if we let it, but only with an unchanging God can we have hope for a perfect future in paradise with Him. While we travel this life, there will continue to be wars, acts of inhumanity, evil, illness, hatred, those who would cause us harm, but Jesus became human flesh. He walked the earth for 33 years. He experienced the human life, even though He was God. He loved us so much, that He died for us – not because we deserved it, but because we’re loved by Him. He rose from the dead and ascended into His heavenly realm, where is preparing a place for us.