The story goes of a man applying for a job at a 7-11. The manager asks him
if he speaks any foreign languages, to which he replies “yes, English.” Maybe
it is just me, but times are changing, have changed, and the language I grew up
with is not spoken today. I am talking of English, or more precisely words used
to describe things that we don’t have any more. For example, let’s take a
teenager of today, back to when I was a teen in the sixties, and see if he can
speak the language. Or see if you can remember without an interpreter...
You wake up to the smell of bacon, your mom has a skillet going on the
range, and has just dropped the toast. Your glass of Tang awaits you, and you
put Oleo on your Wonder toast. Then it is off to school, one last trip in front
of the mirror and an extra dab of Clearasil, and making sure you didn’t use too
much Vitalis on your hair. You go out to where your dad is waiting in the car,
he is complaining about how cold it is, and working the choke to keep the car
idling. He just had it tuned last week, new plugs, breaker points, condenser,
and had the carburetor adjusted. He complains about his gas mileage, did he
really need the 4 barrel carb, in all the traffic he hardly has a chance to get
on it. While waiting he asks you to roll up your window, and off to school you
go. Later that day when Mom picks you up, you roll down all the windows,
because you are still hot from playing during recess, and when arriving home she
tells you to roll them all back up, meaning opening each door, turning the
window crank, then shutting each door after locking it. Holding the handle up
so it locks, if not it stays unlocked, and you don’t want to hear that speech
again. Next door the older guys are working on a jalopy, he just put duals on
it, and is cleaning his Wide Ovals, the finest bias ply tire you can buy. He
got them from the gas station on the corner, where he buys hi test instead of
ethyl, his car won’t run on anything else, but he feels the extra 5 cents a
gallon is worth it. And every few tankfuls uses Amoco Supreme, white gas, which
is rumored to not leave deposits that must be burnt out on a freeway run at full
throttle.
Saturday means cutting the yard before you get an allowance, and moving the
sprinkler to water afterwards. Then you and your friends can set off for the
Sweet Shop, where 12 cents buys you Archie, Sgt. Rock, or Richie Rich. For a
quarter you can read MAD, but don’t get it yet, but the older kids do, and some
even read CARtoons, which must be cool, if only you understood it. And when you
return, your parents wonder why you read such junk, when Time, Life, Newsweek,
and the daily paper are much better reading. Sports Illustrated is a luxury,
and old news, as the daily paper has the box scores, and tonight’s pitchers.
And on Sunday afternoons, you watch baseball doubleheaders, only going to the
bathroom during commercials, no instant replay yet, and you don’t want to miss
anything. And for the next 6 hours you are filled with baseball, and you can
review the box scores you kept later. In the fall it is football, again no
replays, so you sit watching, eating pretzels and Cokes, only the different
drink 7-Up, it isn’t the Uncola yet, and water is the only thing diet, out of
the tap, not bottled.
Mom has gone shopping on Saturday, and brings in the bags of groceries,
loaded in her car by a bag boy, in paper bags, double bagged for the heavier
items. Ice cream is put in a special ice cream insulated bag, but still is soft
enough you must sample it when you get home. She has brought home meat wrapped
in butcher paper, the price written on it in grease pen by the butcher, and
veggies in paper bags, the price written on by the produce man, so the girl at
the check out can read the prices, calling them out loud why she rings them up
on the cash register. Cash or check, not cash or charge, certainly not debit or
credit. She writes your mother’s license information in code on the check, and
a carry out takes the groceries to her station wagon. Dropping you off at the
record store on the way home, for a new 45, someday you can afford the whole
album, for now 59 cents is all you have, and hope you can listen to it on your
parent’s console, after it warms up, your old 45 record player sounds so old.
Even the old hi-fi you sneak on is better, but the console sounds great. And
with a color TV, and radio, what is FM, you have a choice all in one piece of
furniture. Your dad bragging of how modern it is, your mother seeing it only as
another piece that needs Pledge.
When you fall, your mother puts a Band Aid on your cut, after applying
mercurachrome or iodine-ouch! And hoping the Band Aid won’t stick pulling off
the scab when healed. You are still given St. Joseph’s Aspirin for children
when you have a headache, aspirin or Bufferin is only for adults. Vicks for
when you have a stuffed nose, and Pepto Bismal after an afternoon at the drive
in. You get a booth inside. And the house smells of Ben Gay after your dad
works in the yard. And soon it is time for bed, your new US Keds waiting to
help you run faster and jump higher at school tomorrow, a note reminding you
your new wind breaker is on the davenport, don’t forget it again, and to call
Grandma when you get home, her number dialed is AD2-6541. If she doesn’t
answer, call back. And if you have a problem, call the operator after dialing
“0”. In case of an emergency. And other important numbers are on the note pad
by the phone, with a pencil. And as you anticipate watching the Flintstones
tonight, the modern stone age family, you wonder how they ever made it without
all the modern conveniences you have. It must have been tough in the old
days....
Everlasting memories of being a kid, you wonder what will your kids pass on
to their children? Will they know what an I-Pod is? What language will they
remember and speak? God deals with everlasting also, a strange word in the
Bible. It has to do with time, but much more. It is more than eternal, it has
a certain mystery about it that goes deeper. You can go back as far as your
memories take you, everlasting goes back further. You can dream ahead to all
that might be, or is prophesied, but everlasting goes further. Everlasting goes
beyond any dimension or anything we can think. Everlasting can only be used in
the context of God and his love. In the beginning, before the beginning was
God. Was Jesus, and he is everlasting in not only time, but his love for us.
It is called agape, a love only God can have, but we can be given, for it is
perfect. Without reservation or boundary, a mystery in itself, for no man can
understand it. It can be experienced, but cannot be described. It is more than
an emotion, and way beyond feelings. It is God reaching down to us as we are,
and loving us as he is. It is not confined to situations, to events, or
moods. It is not for certain people, but for all. It is everlasting, and this
love can only come to us through Jesus Christ. And since God is everlasting,
and his love is also, it is the same for all generations. And will be into
eternity. We can experience the same everlasting love as David, Paul, Peter,
Job, Jonah, and Joseph did. We are all part of his everlasting, and even though
we may not be mentioned in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews, we too can enjoy his
everlasting love, mercy, forgiveness, and peace. His offer has always been the
same, it is up to us to say yes to God and no to sin. We can enter into his
everlasting love, he still loves us no matter if we don’t, but can enjoy all the
blessings of love without bounds, of grace beyond description, and a future that
never ends. All based on a God’s love that also has no beginning. No memory
can go back far enough to remember, nor mind imagine the things of heaven to
come. He already has precious memories to come that we cannot dream of... are
you ready? Share that love of God today, everlasting is right now, and tomorrow
and the day after. But enjoy today, it is the tomorrow God promised yesterday,
and more to come. It takes the spirit to reveal the mysteries of an everlasting
God, who can only be reached through Jesus. The good old days are still here,
what stories will you tell your kids? What stories will they tell theirs?
Include an everlasting God and the stories never end. I can almost smell the
aroma of hi-test, see the NBC peacock telling us the next show is in living
color. Step into everlasting today...a wonderful future is yours to remember.
Only in Christ Jesus.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com