Good Ol' Days

September 22, 2024
 
Reflections From the Heart of Allan Redenius
I like to think about the “good ol’ days.”  Days when playing in the hay mow or on a pile of cobs was the best. Even taking time to pick a daisy, petal by petal, “She loves me, she loves me not.”  Didn’t have a girlfriend, didn’t even care about girls, but that’s what you said when you picked a daisy.  How about rescuing honeybees from the cow tank?  Often, they buzz in for a drink and seem not to be able to get out of the water.  If you pick them up gently, they become your lifelong friend.  Then there was the score of mice in the silage silo.  Take your pitchfork and become an Olympian javelin thrower as you fend them off from running up your pant leg.  Do you remember the out-house?  I do.
 
I’m part of a dying generation that remembers those kinds of things.  I truly believe I grew up as a baby-boomer, in the best of times.  Politicians were honorable, at least more honorable than most today.  Going to church on Sunday was a routine habit.  Here’s a forgotten ritual.  After church, all the men gathered outside to smoke a cigarette.  O.K., that wasn’t such a good idea but, in those days, who knew?  If it was a hot day, you went for an automobile ride to cool off.  There was no air conditioning, not in your home and for sure, not in your car.
 
Times have changed.  Some say, for the better.  I’m not so sure about that.  Computers were supposed to give us more time.  Instead, they eat up our time and keep us away from eye to eye interaction.    Airplanes came to speed up our travel time.  Instead, we just spend more time waiting in the airport.  Neighbors used to sit on the front porch to visit passers-by.  Now passers-by don’t see a soul.  Everyone is in the backyard behind their privacy fences.  Yes-sir-ee, times have changed.
 
If you’re like me, you look for something constant, something that does not change, that stays the same.  There’s only one thing that hasn’t changed since I was a boy.  Jesus loved me then.  He loves me now.  He’s been my Companion, and my Champion all the days of my life!
 
Has anyone smelled the scent of fresh cut hay lately?
 
Pastor Allan
 
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