Life-Thoughts on the Past Present and Future

 I recently read a book called The Light Pirate.  It is about a girl living in Florida as civilization is falling apart.  Florida as a state ceased to exist, the weather continued to worsen with more tropical storms, loss of beach and everything turning back to a swamp. Those that survived and stayed had to learn and adapt to a new way of life. (definitely not a Christian book, some language ect) I almost didn't read it but it was there and it made me think of other things, such as how our country was started and parallels to Babylon taking over Israel.  Kind of a reach but the link I could see. Nothing about the book was about war and countries taking over but it did mention the original inhabitants of America before it was America.

I was thinking since I finished the book I have been thinking on a few things.  I know we learned the 'story' of the founding of our country.. But we really don't know everything.  We do know there were some good people coming here looking for freedom.  

We also know that because of this (obviously not all were good people) the native people were basically destroyed. Not all died but everything they had and knew was just stripped away by force and violence. 

I was thinking, what would life have been like if the settlers and natives found a way to share the land? What if the settlers we able to do things their way alongside of the natives living off the land and caring for their people?

Natives were amazing.  They knew how to hunt, fish, track seasons, plant and harvest.  They took care of their families and were a strong community of people.  They belonged to the land and the land belonged to them.  

What if they had been allowed to continue this instead of forced into government schools and camps to be trained to be like the settlers?

And this is where the parallel to the Old Testament came in.  When Babylon took over Israel, they killed many people and they people they thought they could train to be like them.. The children and those they believed to be smart and strong enough (Such as Daniel, Hananiah (Shadrach) Mishael (Meshach) and Azaria (Abednego)) where put into training. Their names were changed, they learned the language and Babylon tried to force them to have all the same customs, beliefs and everything.. 

Isn't that what happened here in America?  For thousands of years not much has changed.  People still make choices based on greed, fear and power.

Could you imagine if the settlers and natives had worked together?  Shared their knowledge with each other?  What if we could have learned to be a community? What if we as a nation could have retained many of the skills the native people had?  We wouldn't have to fear of power outages and all the industrial issues we have because there would be balance. 

Nature here now is something you enjoy if you have a free time.  Something you notice when you aren't overwhelmed with life. Somewhere you go when you need a break. But is that even what God intended? He wanted us to care for the land and the animals. 'Progress' has taken away nature and time.  

We live in a fallen world. Nations will continue to rise and fall until the rapture.  If you are a believer this is what we know. Even if you are not you can see that things will keep changing until there is an end of some sort.  

That's the sad part of life.  Too many people don't know how to just accept and be a community with others.  It's all about them and getting ahead no matter what. Not caring who is hurt or left out in the process. Everything done in the name of 'progress' and 'the greater good'. 

I am not trying to put down the settlers. I don't know exactly what happened, who started what etc. We all know how it ended though..