Lost Years Restored

Since it was my last day with my folks yesterday, I offered to take them on a longer drive than they usually do themselves. First to lunch, and then to the lovely historic town about an hour away where they owned a lake house for many years. As we drove through all the familiar streets and historic towns that they had not seen in many years, we all were feeling happy and nostalgic. We stopped at a restaurant that was established in 1930. It was utterly charming inside, heavy dark wood booths and beams, chiseled mirrors, patterned ceiling tiles. My folks remembered many fine meals they had had there over the years.

The decades they owned the lake house were filled with many happy memories. My own family had lived only half an hour away at the time. I brought my young children to the lake house several times a week over the summer months. I taught them to fish, canoe, sail, and swim. We wandered the trails in the park the house property was attached to. We played in tiny waterfalls created by the creek that fed the lake. We burned many marshmallows over the open pit fires. Memories filled my heart.

My parents and I meandered home along a small river, through tiny towns. Each sparked a memory of something we had enjoyed long ago. When we neared home, Dad mentioned it seemed we had been gone for twelve hours, though it was only five in reality. To me, it seemed we'd been gone nearly thirty years. It was with regret I pulled into the driveway, realizing my children were all grown, the lake house sold, and my hair no longer brown, skin no longer smooth.

If I could live my life over again, I would do some things exactly the same. However, many things I think I might do differently, knowing what I know now. It is hard to know, but I hope I would make better choices if I could be given a second chance. One of my favorite verses in the Bible reminds me that while all of us struggle, and sin, and make grievous errors in this life sometimes with terrible consequences, if we turn to God, He restores what seems impossible to restore: the lost years.

“I will restore the years that the locust has eaten” Joel 2:25
Lost years at the time of Joel were literally lost harvest years when plagues of locusts devastated crops. But the application for us is important. Lost years for us may be lost love, failed ventures, lost opportunities.  Lost years due to pain, rebellion, disobedience, Godlessness, or selfishness. The wonder of Christ is that He promises that when we turn to Him, ultimately those lost years will be restored.

Photo using Polaroid SX70 by Gregory Ceccherelli. 

Our lost years will be restored by a deeper knowledge of God -- we will know Him intimately, and His Spirit poured out upon us will remind us continually of His presence. The years will be restored by multiplying the fruit of our labor in His name, just like the people of Joel's times had bumper crops after the years the locusts decimated their harvest. The years will be restored in eternal life, to all those who call upon and know the Lord.

What a hopeful verse! Our lost years will be returned to us. I thought of that as I pictured my family and me all those years ago gathered at the lake house, watching the sun dancing on the water.
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Joel 2: 25-32 

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
²⁷ Then you will know that I am in Israel,
    that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.

²⁸ “And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.
²⁹ Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
³⁰ I will show wonders in the heavens
    and on the earth,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
³² And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved

*Follow the exceptional photographer, Greg Ceccherelli on instagram at @gregoredean