Hold Fast

It struck me recently—and with some chagrin—that I have now lived three generations.  Deciding there was nothing I could do about this, I also realized that it might be fun to think of each generation as a box of my favorite memories.  I was delighted to discover that I had a lot more in my 0-20 “box” than I realized—and, wow, have times changed!  A lot of things I remember are things that only I remember—because only I experienced them!  But there are a whole lot more that I wonder if you remember, too, or, if you have never heard of these, maybe you should look them up!  

Let’s start with great old movies—not that I saw that many!  Right off the bat, I need to point out that my family didn’t go to the movies.  So, any movies I watched were those that came on TV—our 18-inch black and white TV.  (Just for the record, I still don’t go to the movies!)  I would have to start with The Wizard of Oz.  Yes, that was filmed in 1939, way before my time, so it was already a classic long before I came on the scene.  I’m so glad I first saw this movie in black and white!  I don’t think the cyclone, the winged monkeys, or the Wicked Witch of the West are nearly as scary and imagination-triggering in color, but that’s just my opinion. 

Then there has to be Ben-Hur.  This was a fairly new sensation when I saw it, and it is still my favorite-ever depiction of Christ.  Standing at 6-foot-four, Claude Heater towered over the crowds on the hillside, and his masterful hands held a cup of water to an agonized Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston), but we never saw his face.  Nor did he speak.  He didn’t need to.  His quiet reverence pointed us to Christ and left an impression on my mind for the rest of my life.  The Ten Commandments, another Charlton Heston classic, also left an indelible imprint on my soul, making the Red Sea come alive as a water wall on either side of the Israelites and showing a hint of the powerful God we serve! 

Do you remember The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts, and the lumpy playing of the Gothic organ in the attic, like something out of Phantom of the Opera, or Luther’s nerve-wracking speech when the wind carried his notes away?  “Atta boy, Luther!”  That movie was almost as good as Disney’s Haunted House (yes, we went the year Disney opened, and my knees shook so badly I could barely walk, but that’s another story!)  Or what about the Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella musical— “In my own little corner, in my own little chair, I can be whatever I want to be”?  Or what about Disney’s movie about a hound that thought he was a raccoon?  I actually saw that one at school—twice—on a large screen!  Later on, as I was growing up, we saw a few movies at church. Do you remember A Thief in the Night?  If you don’t, that means you never saw it.  I think I prayed every night for at least a year that if I wasn’t really saved, I would be saved!  I was only in fourth grade when I saw this movie, and I was actually shocked that the world did not end before I was ten years old. 

Then there were the Animagic Christmas movies like The Abominable Snowman with the terrifying, endearing Bumble, or the entirely believable Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.  The voice of Burl Ives added a wintry charm to even the hottest Florida Christmas!  And somehow these movies made believable the possibility that our own stuffed animals could come alive!  I really don’t remember a lot of other movies because we just didn’t watch that many.  But the few I did see stuck with me for a lifetime, and I hold them fast in my imagination because each of them portrayed a world of ideals and adventure.  We didn’t have to wonder who the good guys and bad guys were.  Even when the story was real, like The Sound of Music, which I actually didn’t see until I was an adult, we knew that righteousness would win out and that evil would ultimately fail. 

  I think the movies we watched made such a lasting impression not only because they were in themselves iconic and innocent—and certainly excellent—but also because most of the time we used our imagination to create our own little world.  Do you remember the cheetah monkey that had a plastic banana in his hand?  Or did you have a wind-up Woody Woodpecker guitar or a xylophone?  I’m sure you had a slinky that could walk down the stairs, or an Etch-a-Sketch or a Spirograph set.  Did you ever play Battleship or Chinese Checkers or Going to Jerusalem or Bible Picture Lotto or Peter Pan?  I know you played Scrabble and probably Dictionary.  Did you have a View-Master?  What about clackers, jacks, or marbles?  I know you had yo-yo’s and spinning tops.  What about cap guns or bubbles?  Lincoln Logs (I still have mine!) and Tinkertoys?  Plastic barnyard animals and zoo animals and tiny plastic suitcases or metal dollhouses and barns?  The possibilities are endless.  We can’t forget Gumby or Skipper (Barbie’s younger sister), or Pick-up sticks, or Mr. Potato-Head.

Then there were the outside games we played after church on Wednesday nights in the sparse grass of the front yard—like Red Light-Green Light and Mother-May-I, while the adults all stood around talking and got bitten up by mosquitoes.  Or we played church in our backyard and lined up all our dolls and stuffed toys on little pews my father made from the branches the Florida Power and Light Company trimmed from the huge live oak tree behind the house.  In the really hot summer, we played in the sprinkler in our one-piece blue bathing suits and then came inside and listened to the loud whirr of the box fan.  Yes, this was Florida before we had air conditioning.  Then we would hear the happy jingle of the ice cream truck and feel a cool ripple of excitement just knowing it was nearby! 

Is all the charm in the past?  There was certainly a lot it’s good to forget—but most of those things I didn’t even think about at the time—like the riots in the sixties or the Vietnam War or the Cold War or all the assassinations of public figures and political leaders.  I guess it was a dangerous time to be alive, but, then, I guess every generation is.  But I felt safe in my home with my parents’ love.  It’s not that they pretended the world was a perfect place; they were perfectly candid about what was happening in the news, but our home was full of the pitch of prayer and praise, and our little ark didn’t sink in the floods around us.  We didn’t live lives of worry and stress.  We were allowed to be children.  And now that I have long lost my childhood, I hold fast those memories and some other things, too.  I hold fast my fears that I am glad were ingrained in me.  Like the fear of disappointing my parents or of getting a bad grade or—most of all, of displeasing the Lord.

In this turbulent world where all we seem to know is change and AI and Internet and I-phones and life lived in milliseconds, what have we lost?  I for one this year resolve to hold fast the things that cannot change—the things the Scriptures command us to hold fast:  that which is good (I Thessalonians 5:21).  And what is good?  Sound doctrine (I Timothy 1:13); our confidence and rejoicing in hope (Hebrews 3:6); our profession of faith (Hebrews 4:14; 10:23); a right relationship with the Lord (Revelation 3:3); and all the things we know and value with our lives (Revelation 3:11), like our quiet time with the Lord, fellowship with other believers, eating meals with family, observing a day of rest, and looking for ways to make inroads into our neighbors’ lives so that we may win them to Christ before it’s too late!  What happens if we let these things go?  “Behold, I come quickly:  hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown” (Revelation 3:11). 

“Hold fast” in the Greek in all of these passages means a wide range of urgent actions:  to hold down, to keep, to retain, to grasp, to hold firmly with a strong grip, to seize, to guard.  These are commands. When I hold these things fast, I am holding onto my crown!  Loving my Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength deserves my utmost efforts. And how thrilling it is to know that my Savior is holding onto me!  No matter what this New Year holds, He will hold me fast! Do you know that beautiful song?