As If Through The Narnia Wardrobe

                It was three days ago....March 4....74 degrees here in Western Pennsylvania. I don't know if that was a record temperature? I was on my way home from a Christian bookstore....if you can believe that....an actual Christian....book....store....and I pulled off to the right into a large parking lot of a few acres....much of it cordoned off....with no discernible yellow parking space lines. I got out of my truck and took a few minutes to just look around at the panorama.
                Forty-two years ago this shopping center was the place to go. The main concourse I estimate was about three hundred yards long....with extensions on both side of about a hundred yards. One half of the longer middle is now torn down....a Walmart built a few hundred yards up over the hill. One extension had some medical and financial offices....but just about all the rest of the still standing shopping center was empty....with dirty windows....and a lot of pieces of fallen ceiling on the floor of most of the....what once were nice stores.
                I walked over to stand on the pitted cement sidewalks....the concourse covered by permanent awnings....and I let my mind take over as I walked slowly north....the south end being that which has been torn down. In my flashback....it was 1982....my wife and I were shopping at the beautiful Penney's Department Store. I being a little bored told her that I was going outside to walk around....which I did....starting almost where I was now standing.
                So I was walking slow....my eyes not focusing on anything....but my mind was back forty-two years ago. A Hills Department store would have been at other...torn down end....and a housewares store that we went in often was on the south extension. I remembered one evening....in that housewares store....as we met another couple that we knew while in the cookery section. The young lady was holding a wok. I instinctively asked of her...."Do you have a wok?" Of which said yes....and of which I responded with...."You no hava walk....we drive you home." I have no idea if she laughed or even picked up on my comment. That was me back then....and I haven't changed.
               That memory came and went fast....I was now in my slow walk coming to a empty storefront near the end of the concourse....the store within it that back then transformed my life. It was a Christian bookstore.....they were not uncommon in the early 80s....but I had never been in one....and so put my hands on the door handle....(I lovingly stared at that same door handle yesterday)....and walked in....almost as though through the Narnia wardrobe.
               The lady owner....as I came to find out....(her and her husband)....asked me if she could be of help. I pulled out a rosary from my pocket....which I had earlier snapped the chain of beads....and asked her if she sold rosaries....of which she politely said no....so I just looked around at this strange stuff.
               I picked up this book....with an interesting title....Evidence That Demands A Verdict....the author....never heard of him....Josh MCDowell. It was designed in outline form....and since I was a kid I liked books in an outline form....chapter one.....part A....Part B.....Topic One....subtitle two....etc.. I bought the book....devoured it within the next few months....highlighting all through it....and by the mercy of God here I am today....doing whatever this is that I do.
               I prayed a while yesterday at that empty storefront....with ceiling tiles all over the floor....for the bookstore owner (s)....wherever she or they may be....for their faithful service....and I praised God for His mercy on one such as me! This is far from the first time that I have done this folks....and I walked over to my truck....and pulled away.
               Why do I occasionally go back to this spot and and praise and pray? It's because I really believe that one must be born again. I once had a dead heart....and was headed on a fast track to....(can I say the word today).....hell....and then that heart began to beat....and to pound in excitement. There was a point in time when the Bible was ink on paper and nothing else....then it became that which makes gold look cheap and diamonds look dull. I saw myself....my real sinning self....with no excuses....and then I saw Calvary!
                These forty years have been like walking out of a fetid bog....into the morning mist....with a fresh scent of flowers....as the temperature rises....burning off the mist....a slow but still thrilling experience....until the sun begins to come out in its full brilliance....I walk too fast many times....taking short cuts....stumbling but getting back up....until a city appears ahead....getting closer and closer....and I can hear the trumpet sounds....and see a glorious mounted army rising overhead....led by a majestic King....and I sea a river ahead....but wonder if I will reach it before the King comes!