Deep within the human heart lies a desire for the times of old or the things beyond. Glorious nights with dear companions, adventures through the woods and the carefree days of childhood have imprinted themselves permanently upon our minds. In the quiet or dark moments of life, our thoughts return to all those bright and beautiful places and we long to go back. Or maybe, if your past was a difficult one, you yearn for the great beyond. Type "redwoods" into Google and suddenly, you're immersed in a California forest or off at a remote coffee shop in Seattle. Perhaps you're not the traveling type, though, and you're curled up by a fireplace reading about centaurs, wishing you lived in that world instead of your own. Whatever the case, we mortals are innately reaching for something and that something is not what you would expect.
For one thing, nostalgia lives in us as we are born adventurers. What are the memories that most stick out to you from your days as a child? Maybe an image of Disney world or playing in the sandbox or swinging on the swings cloud gazing is flooding your mind. But whatever it is, your most fond memories probably don't include spending days playing video games, though you may have done that. I have found that the moments of greatest impact have been the ones where I am out in nature, in the world or spending time with other people. We were created to explore. Why do you think the heroes of the Old Testament are so inspiring to us? They journeyed on incredible adventures with God (see the accounts of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Sampson, Esther, Deborah, etc.) We are nostalgic for ventures like this because our hearts are interwoven with curiosity and a need to discover.
Not only are we nostalgic for exploration, we are also nostalgic because we are relational beings. You do not have to traverse the interwebs long before coming across a picture of besties or a new boyfriend/girlfriend status. Our deepest joys and fears border around other people. In Genesis, it talks about God creating men and women for each other ("help-mates" or equal partners.) God, Himself, exists in community with the Son and Holy Spirit and since we are image bearers of the King, we naturally desire companionship with other people as well. Our nostalgia for fun nights with friends exists because community is a part of what makes us human.
But as much as our longing for adventure or our need for other people affects us, so much greater is the seed of eternity sewn in our hearts. Eccesiastes 3:11 says, "He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." We glimpse snapshots of God's original intentions for us in the smiles of friends, blue mountains and powerful music. Think of the best days of your life. They are fleeting gold flecks in our hands, gone before we can fully appreciate them. But those precious seconds of time are only shadows of what is to come, where every beautiful moment never ends. Midnight never arrives to whisk us away. Eternity is God's ultimate redemption and healing to a sin-fractured world. To those of us who follow Christ, eternity is the light that pulls us onward in the knowledge that a day is coming where nostalgia will no longer exist.
The tug of nostalgia in us finds its origins in our design to be adventurers, relationally-minded and eternity-oriented. When you find yourself feeling "I know I was created for more than this mediocre life," it is because you are meant for more. God crafted you for an eternal story meant to be shared with others, so do not question those desires. They were implanted into you for a reason. But they will come to nothing, if you are not a believer. True hope arises only from accepting the call of the Lord on your life. Without God, nostalgia will continue to be nostalgia and will mean nothing for those lost in worship to the pleasures of this broken world. Yet, if you search fervently beyond yourself, you will find a life brimming with a purpose that lifts your eyes ahead rather than behind.
