Making a Mark

Often history is presented just as a body of names and dates to learn before an impending test on Friday.  Occasionally, a fact will be interesting or the teacher will tell a funny story that helps his students to remember a lesson for a few days past the test.  But the facts within the lesson may be entirely lost . . .

And I am here, as a history major, telling you that I'm not sure it's such a bad thing.

The lesson is the goal.  It is the mark of history well-learned.  There are a variety of lessons that we can learn from history and, while veracity is a crucial foundation to history, the most important lessons are not the mere facts.

There are frameworks and story lines that will fascinate attentive readers and continue to teach them new lessons long after the original one was mastered.

The first and most important framework of history is as His Story.  Looking back we can see the hand of God at work in the most astonishing places.  One of my favorite examples is the unexpected storm that drove the Spanish Armada off course just before it reached the shores of the weakly-defended British isles and may have been the difference between Catholic and Protestant foundations for this country.  Seeing His Story unfold is like looking at a tapestry that is partially finished.  We can see the colors--and a bit of the design, if we study it carefully.  Just a bit, mind, not quite enough to guess what the final design will be.  So God keeps us in a wonderful state of suspense, waiting eagerly for the next details of His design.

Another framework that I find particularly comforting is the influence of motherhood.  The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world, as a wise man once said.  There can hardly be any occupation in this modern world that garners less gratitude and appreciation that dedicated motherhood.  Yet it is mother who shape their children's view of the world.  (Not to diminish the role that fathers play in the rearing of children and especially in the formation of their views of God, but a woman typically has more time with the children to have a broader influence on their attitudes and beliefs.  Perhaps I will be able to deal with fatherhood at some point later.)  Mothers teach their children what is important.  They teach them the value of human life, and they love their children without stint.  Surely these things help to shape the course of history, "one heartbeat at a time."

"One Heartbeat at a Time,"

by Steven Curtis Chapman

Another related perspective on history that is overlooked is personhood.  All of our forebears back there that are now neatly arranged by name and date in dry history textbooks were people--real people!  Yes, I know, it's an amazing revelation.  Well, maybe not.  We all know they were people, but we do not always analyze them as people.  Names and dates cannot begin to encompass all there was to them.  They had dreams and goals, motivations and fears, just like we have today.  And can we really analyze them as if they were particles of dust or an amoeba to be put under a microscope?  No.  We can learn from their lives, but we cannot pass conclusive judgment on them any more than we can on those people around us.  Even the most insignificant individuals of the past--the ones who are relegated to obscure tomes in the backs of libraries or, worse yet, were never mentioned at all--still had reams that could have been written on them.

Finally, the study of history cannot be relegated to the space between the covers of a book.  It is much bigger than that.  History is the whole story of life.  Every one of us make a mark on the pages of history.  We are studying history every time we chat about the weather or meet a new person or decide what to wear based on the fashions of the season.  History does not have to be intimidating or boring.

It is simple.  It is accessible.  It is exciting.  It is all-encompassing.  History is LIFE!