Days Gone By

And Job again took up his discourse, and said:  Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me, when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
Job 29:1–6
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Days Gone By
Job continues his address to his friends by longing for better days.  In his past Job had every measure of earthly success. A large and loving family, land and animals, wealth beyond measure and health.  He recognized all these blessings as originating from God and felt close to his heavenly Father.  But now, there was nothing left.  All seemed to be gone, health, wealth, family, friends, even the love of God seems in Job’s mind to be missing. We regularly fall victim to this way of thinking.  When times of trouble and trial come, we look to days gone by, when things were better, simpler. What we fail to recognize is that in those days there were people looking back even further to “better days,” because the truth is that as fallen and sinful people, we are all guilty of ignoring our current blessings God has given us. The better days don’t really exist, what we do have though is the current day, in which God has given us life. We have the present, to be sure, with its troubles and hardships, but also and always with its blessings.  For no matter how bad the day is, and very few have ever had a day like Job, Christ is still our Savior.  Our sins are still atoned for, and the promise of our Baptism is as strong as the day it was made.  We need not long for days gone by, for we have today. A day in which God has given us to know His love in Christ.  We have today, a day in which Christ’s blood covers our sins. We have today because Christ has us.