A story continues to reply in my mind. I am sure I have heard it before. The plot, characters, and settings are very familiar. It feels as if I was present when the story unfolded. My senses tell me it is an old friend, coming to visit after a long absence.
It is old, and yet it is fresh. I needed to hear this story! I doubt the storyteller knew of my perspective. Though we know each other, we have never discussed the story or my views on it. He told the story for his own reasons at this particular place and time. In the moment I heard it again, it felt as though it was the first time. I could see what I had been blind to just moments before. Everything around me took on a different perspective.
There is a natural paradox between old stories and new. In my experience, they gently mix together, indistinguishable from each other when they touch your soul. Often it is as if everything has changed. One writer captured the moment; “On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!” (1 John 2.8)
As the afternoon began to fade, I wondered what I was going to do with the fresh revelations. I could see a new window, an invitation to do something more with what I had been given. I know I have had this treasured within me before. I understand that I may have squandered previous gifts. Whatever the past was, the future lies unwritten. I have the freedom to write the chapter of my choosing.
It is an interesting perspective. Old gifts become new. Lost opportunities are reborn in the form of fresh invitations. You and I have a chance to make a positive difference. We can do something about the present. It is a unique moment in time. I know new ones will appear. The question of the present is the one that matters now.
