Monday, August 6, 2012

Living in the Past                                                                                       
                                                                                                                             
By D. E. Allen

“Dear Lord, I’m sorry. Please let me go back in time and do this day over again. Amen.”

It was Saturday night. Little Timmy had just finished his bedtime prayers, and slipped beneath his Hopalong Cassidy bed covers. He was hoping his guilt ridden conscious would not keep him awake all night as his mind replayed the horrible sin he had committed earlier that day.

Timmy had planted carrots a few weeks prior, but he recently discovered that something was pulling the tender young sprouts out of the garden and eating them. So Timmy set a trap, a spring-loaded mousetrap to be exact. That same afternoon Timmy returned to the garden and discovered, much to his horror, a Robin, it’s neck broken and head almost completely severed by the sprung mousetrap. A Robin had been steeling his tender young carrot sprouts from the garden.

Timmy was sick to his stomach as he slipped the Robin into a paper bag and into the trash. Timmy had killed, quite accidentally, but he was sure he would have to answer to the Almighty for his sin.

Timmy did eventually slip off to sleep that Saturday night, and when he woke up at daybreak, he got up out of bed and started to get dressed for Sunday school.

“What you doin’ puttin’ on your Sunday best, boy. It’s Saturday. Don’t you dare go out to play in those good clothes. Put your blue jeans and sneakers on right now!”

Timmy jumped out of his Sunday best and into his jeans as quickly as he could. He ran out the back door of the house and headed towards the garden just as a Robin was coming in for a landing in the middle of the carrots. Timmy reached down, picked up a rock, and threw it as hard as he could at the Robin …

He missed. The Robin landed right in the middle of Timmy’s carrot patch, and the mousetrap instantly killed the poor bird… The rock that Timmy had thrown, sailed clear across the yard, and broke the neighbors dining room window.

This going back in time stuff was not going to be easy. It took Timmy 137 reruns of Saturday to get everything just right.

Ever since that one special Saturday night 40 years ago, and every Saturday night since, little Timmy has gotten to relive one day of the most recent week of his life. It was not going to be easy, hitting rewind on his life, undoing any wrong, and being the best person he could be. Timmy soon discovered that there would be plenty of complications along the path to getting it all to turn out right.

How much trouble? Like I told you, the first time Timmy got to go back in time was 40 years ago. Yet today, none of us has aged very much, maybe 9 years in the 40 that have passed. Timmy is now only 16 years old. Just today, Timmy got his learners permit, and promptly smashed the family car into his Fathers Bosses car, as the Boss and a woman that was not the Bosses wife were driving out of a Motel. This Saturday the rewind and reset could last quite a while, quite a while indeed.

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