Have you returned to your elementary school as an adult? Do you remember the acute disappointment? Visiting ones elementary school in cap and gown was a tradition for high school graduates in Detroit, and I couldn’t wait to show off my emerald green gown to the little kids in my old school. But, the building that used to tower, reaching into the sky, was a rather squat two story affair the day I appeared as an emerging adult. The lighting was terrible and I was no longer used to the peculiar odor which had been a sensory trademark for decades.

This week my brother sent a photo of the “huge” house Dad built for our family in 1951. What had been the pride of our family boasts less than 1000 square feet. My father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather and I shared one bathroom – not counting a concrete, double laundry tub in the basement where we cleaned up after work. The attic bedroom was nicely finished, and all three siblings shared it for years as our grandfather used one of the first floor bedrooms.

The neighborhood has changed. The neighbors we knew are all gone, the street we were so proud to have as our address is now like most in Detroit, filled with abandoned houses, overgrown lots, and accumulated debris. Delicate details Dad included in our home, and which made us proud as children, are really insignificant now.

The memories prompted by the photo renew lessons learned in the years that have passed. They include –

• Things that once appeared so large, are not that big when ones perspective changes. Accomplishments and errors of youth fade as one moves on to greater responsibilities and challenges. Pat and I once wondered how we would make the twelve installments for a used car. The payments were staggering, somewhere between fifty and sixty dollars. The smallness of our first installment payment is now amusing!
• Good times and bad pass. A simple photo restores powerful and positive memories for us, but they joys of children and grandchildren have changed our perspective. The circumstances at the core of sleepless nights and intense prayer are now all but forgotten. The pure delight of family dampens the old anxieties.
• There is reason for Jesus’ disciples to believe that today will soon be a fond memory and that tomorrow is filled with beauties we cannot imagine. The Apostle Paul said it powerfully as the Holy Spirit inspired him, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. (Romans 8:18-19)
As surely as today is Friday, May 6, 2011, Jesus will deliver us to the destination he is preparing for us! For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
Perspectives, our views of reality change, but Jesus is forever the same!