What was your favorite meal as a kid? If you’re normal, it’s
chicken nuggets and macaroni cheese. Now, when I think about that I don’t think
about a specific brand of chicken nuggets, but Kraft macaroni and cheese is the
first brand I think of. Kraft now markets based on nostalgia.
Wednesday night, my roommate got a care package, and guess
what was in it? Yes. Two boxes of Kraft
blue-box macaroni and cheese. And guess what I did Wednesday night? Made a box
of mac and cheese. Earlier this year, I thought about having a throwback party
where we ate Kraft mac and cheese and Motts applesauce, but I couldn’t wait.
Read this box...it's the definition of nostalgia.
So that was the night. I was going to make macaroni and
cheese and reminisce about my childhood when my siblings and I would make
macaroni and cheese soup. That means we would just add extra milk so it was
soupy. And we would have to eat it all right after we made it so the texture
would be delicious. We would all fight over who got the last serving. So many
warm memories over macaroni and cheese.
When I made it the other night , I ate almost the whole box
by myself. Not because I was hungry (because I was not at all), but I found the
texture comforting. It made me miss home in a strange sort of way.
Even Kraft’s ads are aimed to arouse those warm feelings of
childhood, or those warm feelings from a family meal.
I don’t
think there’s necessarily anything wrong with appealing to our childhoods.
Advertisers are smart to play off the warm glow of our past, but as Christians,
we get to look forward, not back. Yes, our pasts shape us and teach us, but we
are not trapped by our past. When we are in Christ, we are freed from the grips
our mistakes or our past have on us and we are free to live fully in this
moment and hope in the future.
All
over scripture, it says Jesus came to give us life, and life to the full. We
are free to embrace this moment, as it is, not being distracted by regrets from
the past or worries about the future. Scripture also speaks greatly about
keeping everything in perspective, in light of the gospel, in light of the
glorious hope of the future.
One
song that has helped me slow down and remember to live in the present, not
stuck in the past or forgetting to live in this moment because I’m only waiting
for the future is Future of Forestry’s Slow
Your Breath Down.
Sometimes we get so busy we also forget to remember the
past and enjoy the beauty of it. So I think this kind of advertisement is not
bad or wrong, but it also plays on the warm glow of our perception of the past.
There is beauty in seeing the good times of the past.
Some of
the Scripture that includes but is not limited to the following:
Proverbs
27:1
Do not
boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
James
4:13- 15
Now
listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend
a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even
know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears
for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the
Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
Matthew
6:34
Therefore do not worry
about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own.
John 10:10
The thief
comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have
life, and have it to the full.
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