Model A

 

“You know what car I’d really like?”  The older man sitting across from seemed fairly animated, as though this car of his dreams was something special.

“I don’t know,” I said.  Vehicle makes and models aren’t a strong point of mine.  I seem to have missed that day in Medical School and none of the medical conferences I have attended since have had a lecture on the subject.  “A Chevy?”  I guessed.  “Maybe an electric vehicle?”

“No!”  The other man grimaced as though he had stepped on a shard of glass.  “Definitely not!”

“A pickup truck?”

“I’ve already got one of those,” Art told me.  “Don’t really need another one.”

“I give up,” I said. 

“A Model A Ford!”  Art said, triumphantly.  “My Daddy owned one until the 1950s and he sold it to my uncle who ran it till near 1960, but that was a beautiful car.”

“I imagine they’re expensive,” I commented.

“Oh, no,” Art said.  “Ten or fifteen thousand for one in good condition.  But they hold so many memories for me – I suppose that’s why I find them so attractive.”

As I left the room, I was thinking about old things and new things.  I have reached the age where I am considered vintage, although not quite old enough to be an antique.

I have realized that just because something is new doesn’t mean that it is better.  There are plenty of items from the past that were simply better constructed and had more craftsmanship put into them than the assembly line, mass produced objects of today.

I’m not sure that I would want to drive a Model A car, but of course, I don’t have a lot of memories about that line of vehicles either.

“It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22,23)

Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations in the midst of one of the darkest periods for the Jewish people.  Foreign invaders had defeated Israel’s army and eventually the city of Jerusalem and even God’s temple would be completely destroyed.

All of this begs the question, why do we need new mercies?  Weren’t yesterday’s mercies adequate? 

The answer is clearly that yesterday’s mercies and compassion were for yesterday’s woe.  Today’s challenges are new, even if they are similar to yesterday’s challenges, and they bring with them a need for new mercies.

God doesn’t listen to us for a couple of minutes after we begin to pray and then cut us off with a short, “You told me all this yesterday.  Just get over it!”  Instead, He gives us new mercies and sufficient grace for today and tomorrow, He will repeat the process – even if the problems and our response to them remain the same.

Even if a Model A is sufficient to get you to work and back, God doesn’t make us rely on yesterday’s mercies.  Instead, He renews them every morning, loving us, even when we find ourselves – and our troubles -- frustratingly the same.