Yesterday I cleaned out old boxes of junk. I tried not to think about it much as I did it, but I made ruthless decisions. They were all things I don’t use, but they bring up old memories in high definition clarity. An old book. A magazine. A yellowed newspaper clipping. A piece of paper. A thoughtful gift forgotten by its giver over a decade ago. It’s a wonder why I keep them. 

I keep them because with a glance, I can recapture the moment, in vivid color and texture, the way it all felt that day. I can time freeze relationships in all their excitement and newness and laughter and forget that they have suffered the strain of time and distance. 

But the truth is, I can’t freeze time. The people in those memories have changed and so have I, for that matter. Holding on to those things won’t bring them back.  And life is not about that anyway. It is about holding on to the moment you are in, and capturing the moment. It’s about laughing in the present and not weeping for the laughter of the past. Solomon says, “Do not ask, ‘Do why were the old days better than these?’ It is not wise to ask such questions.” 

In a season of transition, it is important to remember that. As we grow and change, we should always remember, the old days were never better. We just haven’t found the beauty of today.