There is a very good reason the rear view mirror in a vehicle is so much smaller than the wind shield. It is more important to keep our eyes on where we are going than on where we have been. In life, however, when you reach my age, you tend to spend more and more time looking back where you’ve been and less time on your relatively short future. I don’t think that in itself is good or bad, just a natural reaction to aging.
Emotion burns the good and bad experiences of our life into our memory. I’m glad I can’t put time in reverse and go back to the good times, because I would also have to relive the end of them. Reliving the joys of my early childhood, I would also see my mother die when I was 14. Reliving my fifty years of marriage with my beautiful, loving wife, I would also have to see her slip into heaven ahead of me. Reliving my independence, I would have to also experience losing my driving privilege and my ability to walk. No. I’ll just look in life’s rear view mirror of memories where I can be happy the good times happened without being sad they ended.
I want to leave you on a positive note. The bad news is that time flies. The good news is that when God is your pilot, your destination is a landing strip in heaven, where loved ones and friends await your arrival in the terminal.