Where did you get Clad?

Sometimes I find myself reminiscing about old Belfast, the Belfast of childhood days.  A particular treat of those days was when my granda would hap me up, annd take me on the bus to Smithfield.  We would wander down Gresham Street, visiting the pet shops, and the record shops, and into the old market itself, a wonderland of odds and ends, quaint old cobbled streets over which the goods for sale spilled in a reckless avalanche of assorted merchandise.  To get home we would walk along High Street, and for some reason we would always stop in the doorway of a men’s outfitters, where, every time, granda would read to me the words of a poem, written on the shop wall, just inside the door,

‘When I was a lad, I went with my dad,
and we all got clad at Spackman’s.
Now I’m a dad, and I’ve many’s a lad,
and we still get clad at Spackman’s!’

I suppose now that the owners of the fine men’s boutique were trying to give an impression of permanence, of timeless service to the menfolk of the city.  But nothing seems to last, and the relentless march of time eventually sweeps everything away in its wake.  A hymn writer wrote, “Time like and ever rolling stream bears all it’s sons away, they fly forgotten as a dream fades at the opening day.”  A few months ago I walked down High Street, and Spackman’s shop is no more.  Like Smithfield, and Robb’s and all the old Belfast names, its gone.  Nothing in this world lasts forever.

So I’m glad that the Christian believer’s hope for the future is not placed in anything that’s temporal, that’s passing away, like power, or celebrity, or fame, or business.  None of these will last.  Our only hope is to focus on what’s eternal.  Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.”  God’s kingly rule in our hearts and minds is to be our priority, and to be actively sought by us.  To enter God’s kingdom is by way of the Cross, where our Saviour died for us,  by humbly acknowledging our sin and unrighteousness, and repenting before the Lord, that we might be forgiven.  The understanding that pardon and forgiveness has been so freely granted to us will motivate us to have a better perspective on what really matters in life, get our eyes off our wealth and worldly possessions and fix our hearts upon heaven.

I wonder what will vanish next?  In fifty years or so will our grandchildren be talking about the streets that they walked along with us, and regretting that they are no more?  Maybe so, but I certainly hope they won’t be so distracted by passing things that they miss out on their eternal possessions and heavenly home.