The heart reaches after what the eye once beheld, and there is a tenderness in longing for the familiar things of days gone by. Yet consider the great change spoken of in the Psalm, from the broken in heart to the starry hosts of Heaven. Our God is equally at home with the little and with the great. The inked cell and the landline telephone are little things in themselves, but the soul’s reach for permanence in a shifting world is no small matter. It is a cry for something that does not pass away. But what if all these outward forms, the art of cel animation, the security of a corded phone, are but shadows of a deeper need? The real sickness is not the loss of old methods, but the heart’s distance from its Maker. He considers us when we are of low estate, therefore we will give all diligence to acquaint ourselves with Him that we may be at peace.
Beware of all that is not the work of the Holy Spirit. There must be a breaking up of the iron pan of the heart. Your request piles up desires for payphones and old-fashioned art, but has there been a change of life in you? You tell me you trust in God, and yet the great question remains: does your faith impel you to walk with God? Does it put you into the light where God dwells? The outside of religion is garnished with fine things, but careful conscientious discipleship is what the Lord requires. Snow clothes the earth with a white, warm garment, as the well-washed sheep are clothed with wool, but what good is a snowy landscape if the heart within is not made clean? He scatters the hoarfrost like ashes, a picture of death upon all mere human glory. Our culture’s old ways are like that frost, soon melted by the sun.
The resurrection of the dead is a thing that men can lay hold of because it has to do with bodies, something to be seen and handled. But what is the restoring of a cel-animated show compared to that day when the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout? We never mourn with regard to the souls of the righteous, they are forever with the Lord. The only mourning that we permit among Christians concerns the body, which is blighted like a withered flower. Your departed friend shall come back to you, and you shall rejoice with him in the land where they die no more. That is the true restoration, the animation of the soul by the breath of God, not the re-inking of painted cels for a fleeting amusement.
To stand gazing at such things with your mouth wide open is just the wrong thing to do. The way to watch for Christ is with your belt tight about you because you are ready for work, and your lamp flaming out with brightness because you are anxious to illuminate the dark world in which you live. I do trust you will never be satisfied with temporary godliness or slight impressions soon received and soon lost. There is forgiveness with Jehovah, that He may be feared. David said, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Your likeness", not with the sights of an old-fashioned television. Until you hate your iniquities with a perfect hatred, you go on in them, and your prayers become a list of worldly comforts. You grandparents with snowy heads, whose hairs are whitened with age, know you not that you still have need of Divine keeping or you will fall?
How can there be room for Christ in the inn when it is crowded with other guests? The man is too busy, or he is wholly taken up with pleasure. The women are too proud of themselves, or even of the clothes that cover them. Let us be buried with Him, given up to Him totally, no longer sprinkled with a little Grace which may suffice to spatter us with enough godliness to make us decent, but forever dead unto the world and alive unto God in newness of life. That is the old-fashioned automate that produces wonderful works of art: a new creature in Christ Jesus. The Lord’s promise is not to preserve landlines, but that converts are the garments of the Church, her bridal array, her ornaments and her jewels. You shall surely clothe yourself with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride does. Seek this, and let lesser shadows flee away. Is it worth it? It is worth everything, for with Him is plenteous redemption.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
