Memories of the Future

It's been ten years now (minus the living-in-an-RV-traveling-the-country stint) since we moved to our quaint, little town.  I remember one of the first times we drove into our new town and drove by the playground.  

There was a merry-go-round.  

I felt like we'd driven backwards a few decades.

I remember there was a merry-go-round on my elementary school playground when I was in kindergarten.  After kindergarten, the merry-go-round was removed for being too dangerous.  All that was left was a sandy circle, reminiscent of children running in circles and jumping onto seats.  Similar sandy spots seemed to mark playgrounds everywhere in the early 1980s.

I looked at that merry-go-round in our new town in 2005 and remembered my childhood.  I thought how fun it would be to be able to take B, who was our only child at the time, to play on a merry-go-round.  Somehow, looking at the merry-go-round in town, my mind was drawn into my past, and simultaneously flooded with memories that were yet to be made.  I was excited!

It's 2016, and B and E have grown old enough to be off attending sports games and parties with friends, somehow largely outgrowing playgrounds.  

Y and Miss I accompanied me to the town playground.  

This time, as I watched my little two play on the merry-go-round, I savored watching each moment. How quickly B and E played on the merry-go-round and then grew and grew and grew.  When we'd moved to our town, I'd had "memories" of the future.  They have become realities, and some have become memories of the past.  Must enjoy these moments in the present!

Speaking of memories of the past, present, and future, don't get me started on teeter-totters!  

Continuing the past-present-future theme, remember the "letter people" from kindergarten?  Most schools seem to use other letter curricula now, but in our quaint small town, the letter people live on, and Mr. Q and Miss U get married annually.

As I helped my little "Miss U" into a wedding dress so she'd be ready for her kindergarten class celebration, I admit to getting a little teary.  Crazy!  Dressing my daughter in a five-year-old-sized wedding dress, somehow brought to mind "memories" of what might be in the future.

As this kindergarten Q-U couple got ready to walk outside to their rice-throwing class, this moment was minorly heart-stoppingly a foreshadow what I hope she'll experience for real at some point in the future.

Adorable!

I hope this blog isn't getting too wordy, but this past-present-future stuff still has my mind turning.

Char and I were discussing free will vs. predestination and how it all works together.  God is sort of in and out of time, it seems.  He sees the past, He's with us in the present, and He knows what it will all come to in the future.

Minorly, I think I get that, by looking at merry-go-rounds.

And looking at Q-U letter people weddings.

Maybe the present's beautiful.  Maybe it's hard.  But somehow it's all in the perspective of Jesus dying for us in the past and a beautiful wedding day of the bride of Christ in the future.  It's a beautiful big picture.

Why not?  Here's another picture in our great little town from a few years past.  Waiting for the arrival of Jesus.  Which happened in the past.  And will happen in the future.  Beautiful.