2nd February 2018

You know you’re old when you go to a museum and see in a display case something you used to wear. I had the unfortunate experience last week while showing a new colleague around our local house of hallmarks. There it was. In all its former glory. A football boot. The black leather type, boot style, with steel tags and long laces. Now entombed in a display cabinet. A relic from the olden days.

Time is a perplexing entity. It never varies its pace, yet seems to speed up as the years advance. It seems only yesterday since hearing the “tramp tramp” on the cement path as we left the dressing shed for the footy field. And only the day before that when we graduated to oranges at halftime, and to Vaseline-covered knees, and to jerseys with lace-up collars, and to shorts with side-pockets for foam-inserts.

How quickly life goes. And all just as God intended. At least since our fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. But for what possible purpose? Says Moses in his Psalm: So that we might be provoked to think about life and its meaning and its end. And so that we do not live excessively in our sin and shame and sorrow. And so that we might appeal to God for help and for healing. And so that we might remember our Creator before the day comes for us to take our place in a different field of grass.

DM 2^nd Feb 2018