It was our Friday night go-to, a remnant that lingered from when we were dating. After a long work week, both my husband Matt and I looked forward to a trip to Blockbuster. As soon as we entered the store, it was like Friday-night vibes descended upon us. We relaxed our shoulders. We took deep breaths. The weekend had arrived, and it was time to pick out a movie. We didn’t take this particular tradition lightly.
We would spend at least an hour perusing the aisles, hoping against hope that we would find the latest movie that we had been most wanting to see. If not, we had to do our research. It was as if we were deciding on the fate of a nation, rather than just what to watch that evening. Romantic comedy? Action? Drama? Should we rent a movie we hadn’t yet seen? Or would it be more prudent to watch one we already knew we would like?
It’s funny now, looking back from the luxurious convenience of our streaming services these days, how much time and effort it took to rent a movie back then. If you didn’t get to the store soon enough, chances were that the movie you wanted to watch would have already been checked out.
Once you made your selection, you had only a couple days to watch it, and then you had to pay a fine if you were late returning it. Additionally, you had to get into your car and drive to the store in order to return it in the first place. And if your particular experiences go back far enough to include VHS tapes, there was that added fine if you forgot to rewind the tape before returning it. (Remember the stickers? “Be kind – rewind!”)
Matt and I were telling our teenager about life before Netflix and the slew of other streaming services we now enjoy. And do you know what she said? This daughter of streaming abundance who wants for nothing entertainment-wise, who has hundreds of options available at a moment’s notice, even on her phone – do you know what she said? “Lucky! That sounds like such fun!”
Wait a minute. Matt and I, middle-agers as we are – we are the lucky ones? How does she figure that? In our eyes, she is the lucky one. And yet, she thinks our toiling and striving to find the right movie, our old-timey inconveniences, are nostalgic and memory making. Which really, I guess they were. We do look back at those nights fondly.
But this has me thinking about how each generation looks back at the ones before it with a mixture of nostalgia and also relief. Boy, those dresses from the 50s were adorable! But I wouldn’t want to give up my Wi-Fi for anything. Or I would have loved to be a pioneer, with the beauty of the land and the world unspoiled by the internet and social media. But I sure would miss indoor plumbing and electricity.
We are studying 1 Peter in my women’s Bible study, and we came across these verses: Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things (1 Peter 1:10-12).
This, coupled with John 20:29, where Jesus said, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed, has really made me grateful to be living in this time where we have seen the gospel played out. We have the Bible, which tells us all about Jesus’s earthly ministry, death, and resurrection. We can read about how the Holy Spirit empowers believers throughout church history and be encouraged that He is still filling and enabling us as believers today.
The prophets of old knew that God was giving them a message, but they didn’t know all of the details of how it would come about. They understandably longed to see more of the big picture, but they learned that they were serving others who would come later – including us! And Jesus Himself said that those of us who haven’t seen Him in person are blessed because we believe in faith.
How blessed are we? When we’re struggling, we often rewind our minds to a kinder, gentler place, which often for us is some time in the past. Likewise, it can be tempting to look back at other generations and wish that we had the peace of those times rather than the bad news we hear constantly these days. We can certainly appreciate qualities and characteristics of days gone by and learn from them, but let’s not give up our hope for today. Let’s not discount the blessings of living in these days.
That old Blockbuster store went out of business years ago, became a Spirit Halloween store seasonally for a few years, and is now a Safelite Auto Glass location. It’s a fitting reminder that everything has its season. Everything has its purpose and its moment in time. But also: things change. Life moves on. We all grow older, hopefully wiser too.
Most things do change, but . . . another reminder from 1 Peter is fitting here too: For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Peter 1:23-25).
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