Perspective

 

A little girl at church last night was wearing a hat like the one pictured here. The hat belonged to her dad, and he had worn it when he was an active-duty Marine. I started to say when he was a Marine, but as everyone knows, there is no such thing as a former Marine.

Anyway, it occurred to me that she must think the hat a prehistoric relic. After all, it's probably at least three times as old as she is. Maybe more.

But isn't that how kids think? One of my childhood memories is that my dad had the necktie which he had worn for his wedding hanging in the coat closet. We called it his "married" tie. I remember thinking that this tie came out of ancient history, somewhere about the time the Mayflower landed. Yet, it was probably about ten or twelve years old. Now that I'm considerably older than ten or eleven, ten years seems like a very short time.

My theory is each of us marks time beginning with our own birth. For me, World War II seems like distant history. But think about this, I was born in October of 1946,  and though hostilities had ceased, it was nearly a year before the Treaty of Paris was even signed! And the first time I saw the Vietnam War mentioned in a history book, I thought, "That's not history; that's current events!"

No wonder the Bible warns us about pride. Our very world view is ego centered! God surely knows this about us, hence His many warnings about being "puffed up." Not a very pretty mental picture, is it?

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12:3