Imagining a past that never was

The experience you recall may not be the full story (Exodus 16:2-3)

As the Israelites journeyed through the wilderness, God quenched their thirst by turning water from bitter to sweet. God told them He would protect them if they obeyed His laws. Now they are hungry and complain to Moses:

And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exodus 16:2-3)

As one might expect with thousands of people moving through the wilderness, there simply isn’t enough food to eat. They complain — as most of us do when tired, frustrated, and hungry — then go a step further, recalling their meals while enslaved in Egypt as something akin to a feast!

Was that really the case? Recall that Pharoah, whose heart was hardened after every interaction with Moses, made the Israelites’ lives increasingly difficult as Moses pleaded for their release. For example, forcing them to make bricks without supplying straw or beating them. While they may not have been starving in exactly the same way they were feeling hunger in the wilderness, life was extremely difficult. The past they choose to recall now, rather selectively, is not anywhere near the reality they were experiencing in Egypt before.

This passage causes me to consider how we remember, and present to others, our past in our families and businesses. We might portray the past as pain-and-conflict free, when the experience of many was just the opposite. Or we might present the past as terribly difficult, without mentioning many of the good experiences we had. We might think of our relationships with our children now as better than our relationships with our parents when we were younger; but do our now-adult children see it that way? We might recall the family event — a meal, a party, a holiday gathering — but fail to mention the context: the uncertainty, tension, disappointment, or frustration at play.

Do you recall a family or business event differently than other family members? How does your recollection of your experience shape how you interact with your family today?