The Book of Wisdom was written in the decades before the birth of Jesus. While lamenting the lack of wisdom in his/her own time, the author cast a nostalgic eye back to the “good old days.” We read, for example, that when the Hebrew children entered the land of Canaan after passing through the Red Sea “they bounded about like lambs, praising you, O Lord! their deliverer.” The temptation to see our times as bad and the olden days as good seems common in our country as well. But even the most casual of readings of history shows that the past was just as problematic as the present. We must learn to see the presence of God in current events. These are the good old days!
