Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Old Television at the DAV Thrift Store...

I just returned from the DAV Thrift Store just down the street as I had some items to drop off. While unloading the stuff from my car I noticed an old (I mean "really" old) television setting in the parking lot. People had gathered around it admiring this piece of antiquity! They searched through some bins to find the "rabbit ears" that surely must go with it! I was amused at first, but then I wondered about the eyes that had viewed this unique piece of furniture.

I wondered when some technician assembled this video antique, probably in the early 1950s, did he ever think that his piece of equipment would end up in a parking lot in Williamsburg, VA? Probably not! The technician is probably long gone and any dreams or goals that he had are now history. He may have taken a great deal of pride in being among the very first people who worked on televisions, but his efforts ended up in a parking lot!

My thoughts went to the number of children that must have laughed with Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob Smith and Phinias T. Bluster, the mayor of Doodyville! How many little boys had watched the Lone Ranger (and his faithful companion, Tonto) capture the bad guys and save the community once again? Did those folk thrill seeing "Father Knows Best" or "Ozzie and Harriet" as much as I did? Most of us boys had a little crush on Cathy and we never could figure out what Ozzie Nelson did for a living! Oh, what memories!

But, there it sat in the hot sunshine awaiting its fate! No more would it bring laughter and tears to a family gathered around it in the evening. No more sounds of Dennis James callling out the exploits of professional wrestler, Don Eagle. It was doomed to be put in the big old truck and hauled off to be priced and sold...maybe!

Such is life! We are so real, viable and alive, but there comes a time when we are passed over by the newer and more highly technical gadgets of another generation. Our joys, motives, and dreams were all so very real, but now are forgotten and many of our dreams left unfulfilled!

Unlike that old television, we have a wonderful destiny ahead of us if we believe in a heavenly Father! The one that gave his one and only Son for us! If we give ourselves to Him through faith and obedience, we will find our future is much brighter than our present and more glorious than our past!

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