Playing in the Good 'Ol Days

August 11, 2024
 
Reflections From the Heart of Allan Redenius
So, I’ve been thinking about the playground equipment I played upon in grade school.  Compared to all the play equipment safety gizmos of today, I’m lucky to be alive!  First of all, the merry-go-round was encircled by a perfect dirt path circle.  If you fell off, you landed first on the packed dirt and then rolled into the grass.  How about the jungle gym?  Climb to the top of the world and if you fell, your head would bounce off the bars like a ball dropping down a plinko board.  How about the tall slide with only a three inch side rail to keep you on track?  What waited for you at the bottom was not wood chips or a spongy landing.  Yes-sir-ee, more hard packed dirt.  At one time or another, didn’t we all limp around with road rash on our hind ends from an ill-timed landing off the fast slide?  Then there were the swing sets.  What I’ve figured about swings is that the longer the chain, the higher you go.  Where I grew up, the chairs must have been twenty feet long.  With a push from a friend and a few good pumps, there were times you were in the clouds—without a parachute.  There were no climbing walls back then.  Only the old tree, with no safety harness to catch you if you fell.  Part of the fun of the twenty minute recess was just to make it back to the classroom in one piece.
 
Off the school playground, there were things to play with that were just as dangerous.  For instance, I never wore a bicycle helmet.  Helmets were for sissies.  (Today, I wear a helmet when cycling.  Not wearing one would mean I’m just plain dumb.  No comments, please 😊)  There was a time, whenever Dad rolled by on the tractor pulling a hayrack, I’d think to myself, “I bet if I stuck my foot under that tire, it wouldn’t hurt.  Afterall, the tire is made out of rubber and rubber is soft.  So it shouldn’t hurt.”  I just thought of that one, and fortunately, never followed through.
 
In Matthew 18:10, Jesus says this about guardian angels.  “See that you do not despise one of these little ones (children).  For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.”
 
Thinking my guardian angel might be out of breath!
Pastor Allan
 
 
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