Count Your Blessings #42 – Time Travel

How dull it would be to live each day completely in today, no looking forward and no looking back. But just having one of the perspectives would be equally problematic. Imagine not having any forward view, nothing would ever get done, things would always be a surprise, they would often be a shock. For most of us it would mean that we would never do anything because we would have no motivation to do it; why bother. Having no history would be equally troubling; how would we be able to perceive the likely future if we had nothing to reference it to. Imagine watching children grow up without being able to reference our own childhood and how we felt.

It goes even further than that though, some people are dominated by their history or by their future. This dominance blinds them to see today, the future or the past overshadows all.

How we travel time has a huge impact on who we are.

Yesterday someone posted a set of aerial pictures of Preston, Lancashire where I live to Flickr. These pictures were all from the 1950’s and showed a town that is similar in structure to the town I know, but it has gone through many changes. For one thing Preston has become a city but it’s more physical than that. The railway sidings that used to dominate the area around the railway station are no longer there. The old football ground has been completely replaced with a new one. The docks area is still an active dock, rather than the leisure and housing area it is today. The bus station which they are currently contemplating knocking down doesn’t even exist. There are a lot more chimneys. 

Seeing these pictures gave me another perspective on my city, not only because they were taken from an angle that you wouldn’t normally see, but also because they are more than 50 years old. They allowed me to travel through time to a time before I was born. They allowed me to realise that changing the bus station wasn’t such a big deal because it hadn’t been there that long anyway. They allowed me to travel from the past, through the now into the future.

Time travel is a marvelous thing.

I love to time travel in my personal life too. Like most parents I look at my children and see them changing almost every day. I love to remember carrying them on my arm when they were tiny. I love to remember them going to school for the first time or riding their bike for the first time. I look at their life and compare it to my own experiences. I use these experiences to imagine a future for them; a future that looks OK because they are great kids. It could all go horribly wrong, but that’s not what I imagine. I see them riding their bikes today and imagine them driving a car tomorrow. I see them doing tests today and imagine them doing exams tomorrow.

Time travel can be very informative.

Yesterday I wrote the traditional family letter letting all of those people who we only meet occasionally in on our year. As preparation I looked through the photographs we have taken over the year (it’s much easier with digital pictures). It was great to look through all of these pictures and be reminded of the things we have done. There’s a picture of us all swimming in a lake; there’s a picture of Jonathan and I flying up into the sky at a Theme Park; there’s a picture of Sue and Emily hugging at New Year. I use these memories to imagine the adventures that we already have planned for next year, but also to imagine new adventures that we might not do for many a year.

There are a thousand more memories and another thousand future plans spinning around my head right now as a write. In the midst of it all are a number silver threads that binds the future and the past together, silver threads of relationships. Relationships with Sue, Jonathan and Emily; relationships with friends; relationships with other family members; and most importantly a relationship with a Father God. Each of these relationships has a history and a future that gives me a context for today. I know that my future is assured and taken care of. That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to see heartache but it does mean that ultimately it will all be resolved. At the end of my life there is another life to come, on that I can be assured.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing–nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable–absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Romans 8