The experts may argue about how far back your earliest memories go, but I
can remember being interested in cars as early as age 3. I didn’t know the
names yet, engine sizes, or transmissions, but I could tell the sound of each
one as it passed by our house on Westfield Road. Later I would learn I was
identifying a Ford Y-block, or a Chevy small block, or even a Studebaker flat
head, but each car or truck interested me. Just thinking of it I can hear the
gear whine of my parent’s 1952 Chevy Deluxe 2 door. As a gear head was born.
Growing up we knew about the cars our parents drove, mostly by color, and could
already tell some were cool, and some were boring. It must be an intrinsic
thing, as no one ever taught us, nor did they have to. Car pools had us riding
in cars from Chryslers to Fords to Chevies to Oldsmobiles. Car with seating for
6 adults, or 8 kids, before seat belts were required. With the shotgun seat
reserved for when your parents drove, for me a Rambler, no one ever fought for
that seat, with most memories coming from riding in the back seat, or huddled
between a friend and his mother in the front. But one day it all was as to
change, a special car was to enter the neighborhood, and my life. The car that
I would base all other cars on, and the one that always manages to elude me at
car shows. To most just another car, to me something special. I wanted it,
still do, and have never found just the right one.
That car is a 1965 Chevy Impala SS, red with a black vinyl roof, black
vinyl interior, 327 with a four speed, four on the floor, and white walls. With
those cool spinner hub caps. I can see it now, sitting in Scotty’s driveway,
brand new, his older brother Gary bringing it home, and all us kids wanting a
look. Sitting long and low, shining like no other I had seen, and with bucket
seats-like a race car. And a rear seat speaker, you could hear the Beach Boys
or Gary Lewis and the Playboys in the back-not stereo but front and rear
speakers. Cars would never be the same after this...I can still see that chrome
shift knob, full console, and smell the new car smell that has long ago left
us. Roll the windows down, light up the rear tires going up the street, tunes
from both speakers....when did it happen to you?
Scotty’s other brother later in the year bought a green Impala, with a
black vinyl roof, non-SS, with a 283 and auto, with those cool fake mag wheel
hubcaps, but it was not as cool as the red SS. In high school Dave’s mom drove
a 1966 SS, white on white , 283 with a Powerglide, similar but not the same.
Even Mrs. Brown our neighbor had a 1967 SS427, blue convertible, talk about
cool....but it wasn’t the red SS of my heart, and never could or would be as
cool. Occasionally I look at the ads for one, trying to regain my first auto
love, but it has eluded me. Close, but with ugly wheels. Wrong color, wrong
engine, maybe a little custom, small things that are correctable, but not what
I am looking for. I feel like Goldilocks must have felt, nice, comfortable, and
filling-just not what I want. And so my dream goes on, the prices go up, and
the availability goes down, but the memory burns strong. Even my nose can
detect the smell of fresh vinyl, my ears how good a rear speaker can sound, and
how easy it was to burn rubber on old bias-ply tires. For like the author
wrote, “for one brief shining moment there was paradise.” Mine just happened to
be a car....
For me it is a car, for Captain Ahab it was Moby Dick. We each have a
dream, or an obsession we chase through life. The term bucket list has become
trendy, and I never had a bucket list, but a list of desires kept to myself, for
no one else will ever dream as well as you do. For every red SS that is not out
there, there are many that others would tell me to settle for, that I must be
dreaming, and it will take a miracle to find that car. We become obsessed with
things looking for that certain something that eludes us, but when we find that
the something, that it is really a someone, our lives change. Players have had
careers without going to the playoffs, feeling they are not complete. I know
collectors who are looking for that special coin to make the collection
complete. Friends buy and sell motorcycles, looking for the perfect one,
usually wishing they hadn’t sold one in the past, for now they miss it. How
many of us can lament of cars of bikes sold that we wish we had kept. And then
that certain someone, Jesus Christ comes into our lives, and all our values
change. Our desires change, along with our priorities, and like John the
beloved, author of 5 books in the new testament, we have new life in Christ.
John, who once was described by Jesus as one of the “sons of thunder,” a man who
wanted to blow up the current government and install his own way, changed
dramatically when the spirit came into his life, and he became known as the
apostle of love. His heart changed, his mind changed, and his attitudes and
actions changed. In 1 John we find him expressing love, and defining love in
Jesus, assuring us eternal life, and an example of how Jesus Christ changes
lives. Yet we fail to emphasize how Jesus changed him, and even the fact he
changed at all. We talk about God’s love, yet few ever let God truly have his
way with us. John did, and the example is there to see. And when you are truly
born again, your actions will bear out the fact that you are. You may be able
to fake it in church with others, but your heart will always be missing
something. Other things may come close, but like the elusive red Impala SS of
my youth, and dreams, others will offer you a substitute. A good feeling, a
lifestyle, a religion, or an alternative. But you will never be satisfied until
Jesus Christ becomes Lord in your life.
When did it happen to you? Has it ever happened to you? Are you denying
Jesus, or settling for something as close. That someone is for real, and wants
to come into your life, but must be invited. He knocks at your heart, the
spirit telling you “you need Jesus, you need Jesus,” in ways you didn’t
realize. For some it happens in church, some on the side of the road, some at
home, and even some in prison. But Jesus extends that invite today, to be the
one you need, the one you are truly desiring. The one whose manner of love is
found nowhere else, and in nothing else. Heaven awaits all who believe, but you
can have all the joys of Jesus now here on earth. In ways not imaginable, or
dreamt of. But yet the red Impala SS of their lives escape them...just like
Goldilock’s perfect meal.
I may never find my dream car, but I found life in Jesus. All other
desires pale when compared. Make him the desire of your heart, and find he will
give you the desires of your heart. For 50 years that red SS has eluded me, but
for 40 years I have been fulfilled in Jesus. On earth as it will be in heaven.
I am looking forward to heaven, having found what I have always desired in
Christ. And at the two car shows I will attend this Memorial Day weekend, I
shall be on the lookout for a 1965 Chevrolet Impala SS. Red, black interior,
black vinyl top. There will probably be other 1965 Chevies, but not what I am
looking for. Many things in life will come close, and attempt to satisfy.
Promising what they cannot deliver. For me my heart is set on one car, and one
God. Seek and you will find. I am so glad my search for Christ is over....now
if I could only find that car. Maybe just let me sit in it...go for a ride,
tunes blasting from the rear speaker. And for one brief shining moment let me
be that 10 year old boy again. Life will disappoint, Jesus never will. The
right one. Has he happened to you?
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com