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Photo taken from http://www.chad.co.uk/news/local/demolition-of-kings-mill-buildings-just-weeks-away-1-5176219 |
Memories! Over 25 years ago I went to the Dukeries Centre with my wife.
The initial tour and a stop for information was the forerunner to a visit that
lasted some hours and, eventually, resulted in the birth of our first child.
Apart from various traumas that are etched in my memory, I would have to
remember the centre with a degree of affection. The staff were superb, and to
leave the hospital with our first child was memorable – life changing!
As I watched the short video on the CHAD web site I was conscious of
how things have changed and how time has flown by. My son is now a working man.
That helpless babe that we carried from the Centre could easily carry me now.
But where have those 25 odd years gone? What was once “state of the art” is now
a pile of rubble! You look at the area surrounding and you find a thoroughly
modern hospital, a completely different traffic junction, a B&Q Superstore,
and many other changes besides. Perhaps the greater challenge is to look in the
mirror and see what the passage of those 25 years has done to me!
If we are honest the signs are there in all of us. It may be the hair
that’s turning grey. Perhaps the figure is not what it used to be. The face
shows signs of aging – the spectacles, the signs of dental work, the lines, and
the wrinkles. We are all getting older! But there is a challenge here too. Are
we prepared for “the wrecker ball” that will bring our life to its conclusion,
as the machine has done for the Dukeries Centre? It was striking listening to a
woman visiting her dying mother in hospital. She confessed that she was
frightened of death. For her it was an unknown, an uncertainty.
For the Christian we take the Bible’s promises seriously – as truth! The
Lord Jesus Christ said, ‘He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is
passed from death unto life’. To accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour is
to remove the fear of death, and the uncertainty in relation to our spiritual life
beyond death. It assures us of the forgiveness of sin, peace with God, and a
home in heaven. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour? For the true
Christian the passage of time takes us nearer to the glory of heaven!
