Recently, I traveled with my family to the area where I spent my childhood.

“That seems a lot smaller than it did when I was a kid.” I say, as I try to reconcile the differences between the humble abode that I am looking at and the memories of the nest from which I flew out of, twenty something years ago.

To me it was home, but no one can join me on that journey back in time. My mind plays a video of many, many of the memories that are held in its recesses. I can only try to describe for my kids what the house looked like, back in the day - in its prime. Dingy and overgrown now, I know the kids can’t envision its former glory. I drive around, dumbfounded by the changes in the neighborhood. Besides the general run down look, there is nobody around.

“When I was a kid, this place was active and inviting. There were always kids riding their bikes around, playing out in the school fields.”

We move on to drive by my old schools, the church I grew up in and my grandparents’ home, each one evoking so many memories. At each stop, the experience is much the same as it was at my old house.

We finally reach the cemetery where my grandparents are buried and it hits me like a ton of bricks that my kids could never understand how things used to be. Too many things have changed. Tears begin to well up in my eyes as I ponder the day and I think to myself…”You can go back, but you can never go back to the way it was.”

Perhaps instead of a trip to your old stomping grounds it is a spiritual mountain top experience you are looking at in your rear view mirror but when you try to get back there, something has changed; you realize the moment was a gift or a mirage that cannot be recaptured. Maybe it was when you first encountered the gospel message, when God’s forgiveness first seemed possible and hope filled your heart. I want to remind you today that you are God’s treasure. He loves you just as much today as He did when He was nailed to the cross in your place.

Has your “faith” fallen into disrepair, like my old neighborhood? Is it dingy, run down and unattractive? Yes, life happens and people err but forgiveness is still available, hope is still available. God desires to wrap His arms around you once again and bring you back into His fold, but He won’t force you. He can take your questions, doubts and failures and turn them into something beautiful and useful in His hands, the likes of which you have not yet seen. Make a fresh start today; it’s never too late to place your trust in Jesus.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

To contact or read more poems and articles by Stephen please go to: http://www.faithwriters.com/member-profile.php?id=68560