If you could erase one trend from history, what would it be?
If I could erase one trend from history, I would erase nothing other than the moment when sin first entered the world through Adam — the first man’s rebellion against God’s command. Had sin been erased, the curse would not have entered creation (Genesis 3).
World history is man-made — forged through human lives, whether in communities or as individuals. Without human interplay, there would be no history at all. In other words, we are history-makers ourselves — whether we go down as heroes or as sinners.
Consider my own lived history. By worldly measures, I have left my mark: I was among the top of my class at university; I received first-class honours for my graduation dissertation, recorded in my alma mater’s history; and I went down in my organisation’s records as a key contributor to its HR policies. Yet despite all this, what I truly desire most is to go down in divine history — as a blameless child of God.
As a Christian, I believe God is writing His story through the lives of His children. Adam let sin enter the world, but every generation since has borne its own responsibility — allowing sin to grow and spread.
Today’s prompt invites us to erase one trend from history. My immediate response is this: yet even if I could, would it be right to do so? In this respect, Scripture has already revealed the final truth:
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” — Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
No one can erase history — not even God. God’s response to history is judgement, not erasure.
Therefore, instead of dreaming the impossible — erasing history — learning from history is the wise person’s path. True wisdom, as the poem below suggests, begins not in erasing the past, but in seeing ourselves clearly within it. May Scripture and the poem guide you to true wisdom.
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✨ Seeing Self as Another ✨
Our greatest weakness is the flaw we cannot see,
Our greatest strength — our own self-righteous plea.
All that goes wrong, another’s fault must be —
Yet wisdom’s eye can trace another’s shade
Upon our own reflection, unafraid.
True wisdom dawns when we have learned to see —
To see the self as simply human, free —
And there, in that clear gaze, peace comes to be.
—
en yan hua fang 