Old Things

Are you drawn to old things like I am? I’m talking flea markets, junk shops, thrift stores, antique malls, castles and ruins? I think a lot of us are. What is it about old things that is so attractive, so compelling? Are we just amazed that anything could hold up so well in this age of disposable everything? Or do old things catch our eyes because they stand in stark contrast from the shiny and new of so much around us? In our culture we get tired of things quickly and replace them with new ones. Old cars, old jobs, old furniture, old clothes (even though old clothes are so much more comfortable), even old relationships are quickly replaced by new.

In the US, everything around us is new, if you compare it to the rest of the world. Even our country itself is new by global standards. An old building in New England, say, would hardly be broken in compared to your run-of-the-mill building in Europe.

Lots of folks love and collect antiques of every description—furniture, silverware, architecture, books—and the appeal may be different for each of us. I used to think that old things were cooler because they usually display finer craftsmanship than their contemporary counterparts. They remind us of days before mass production which brought convenience and affordability, but at the cost of artistry and the signature of a real artist.

Some people are drawn to natural materials as opposed to sleek modernistic ones. Do old things pull us toward the base elements of earth? Wood vs. plastic? Stone vs. steel?

Some people love old things because of their rich histories and the human stories wrapped up with those things through the decades or centuries. We marvel at the influential people who might have walked down those roads or handled those artifacts. Their stories are captivating and complex, and the old things help us connect with them. One of my favorite old places with old things is the site of the Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. These massive stones were purportedly placed some time in the bronze age, for crying out loud, in a cruciform shape long before there were crosses, by people who surely had their reasons. Folks have speculated about those reasons, but the realities are lost in the mists of time. Who were these people? I mean, what were there names? How on earth did they move those stones? How many people have touched and marveled at those stones before I did in the summer of 2017? The bronze age. I struggle to take that in.

The Callanish Stones, Isle of Lewis, Scotland

Maybe it’s control. Our scientists can carbon date old pot shards or dinosaur bones, and that helps us put things in perspective and gives us an idea of where we fit in the context of history. We can point to where we are on the cosmic timeline and see how far the world has come. Maybe that just makes us feel better about ourselves, and grateful that we landed on earth at a great time. I mean really, we have penicillin and pumpkin spice lattes.

But I had a thought this evening driving home… what if we’re trying to wrap our minds around eternity? We touch old things, things that have seen the passing of a hundred generations and still stand strong, and we wonder what it’s like to go on and on without end?

Human souls are eternal. For good or ill, we’re around pretty much forever. Even when we die, that’s not the end, in the Christian worldview. But how we spend eternity is not necessarily a given. The Bible says we’ll either spend eternity with God or separated from him and the former is going to be a whole lot better than the latter. At least, it will be if you love spending time with God now. If you’re not into God now, you won’t be into him after you die. Heck, according to Jesus (Matthew 25:31-46), there are folks who say they love God now, who look for all the world like awesome Christians, but in reality are just faking it. Those folks will end up out in the dark wondering what went wrong, forever. “But we checked off all the boxes! We said all the right words! We performed miracles! What gives?” Jesus says we have to give up everything to follow him. Everything. Especially looking good in front of other people. This is radical, and challenging. And the key is to stop trying to be good enough, and trust Jesus’ work on our behalf. Wow. So many ramifications. This changes everything.

So, when I see old things, things that have outlived generations, I’m grateful for the time I have to spend learning about God and his people before I die, and I try to imagine what it will be like to go on and on forever, with God. I’ll never be good enough. But he is, and his ultimate sacrifice has made everything right for me. (Ephesians 2:1-10)