Sankofa

Sankofa is a mythic bird of West Africa that flies forward with an egg in its mouth while looking backward. The egg symbolizes the future. The unusual flying posture of the Sankofa represents the belief that one must know where one has come from in order to move forward. Sankofa is transliterated in the Akan language as "se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki." Literally translated it means "it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot".

Why then was Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back? Could it have been in her looking back she desire not to learn from where she had been in order to go forward, but instead she desired to go back, to stay, to stagnate?

Another Old Testament woman looked back at where she had come from and lived to tell about it. Read the first chapter of the book of Ruth. Standing at the border of Moab and Judah, Ruth faced a serious decision - go back to her people and her gods or go forward into the uncertain future. Ruth looked backward seeing where she had come from and, uttering her most famous words, she flew forward. "Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge;your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried." (Ruth 1.16-17)

Ruth embraced the essence of the Sankofa. It's not easy to do. As I leave the church I have been serving I look back with joy to where I have been - where WE have been - and I can pick up the promising future that is still unknown and go forward. And you will go with me because you all have become a part of me - making me who I am today. Thank you.


Point to Ponder:
What do you need to go back and fetch in order to go forward into the future? What can you learn from where you have been?