A familiar place that is completely different

Published 11:09 am Tuesday, August 5, 2025

By Michael Klaus, Sr. Minister at First Christian Church

Have you ever been to a place you know you’ve been before — but it’s so different, you hardly recognize it?

This morning, I’m sitting in just such a place. I know I’ve been here before, but it feels like I’m in a dream — one that seems real until you wake up and realize it’s not.

Only a few things are still the same: the sky, the water and the warmth in the air. But almost everything else has changed — thanks to that thing we call “progress.”

The road is now four lanes wide. The signs are vivid and modern, made of sleek metal instead of the old wooden ones. Many of the trees have been chopped down. I know I’m standing in the same spot I stood as a child, but it’s hard to recall much of it clearly — because nothing around me jogs my memory anymore.

There are no phone booths, no painted Coppertone ads and not a single pickup truck with a load of kids in the back heading to the beach. What was once so familiar is now gone. I know I’ve been here … but it almost feels like I’m standing in someone else’s life.

As thousands of cars pass by — where only dozens once did — I realize this is a completely different world … in the same old place. What was once a dot on a paper map is now a dropped pin on Google Maps.

But then, I walk down toward the beach. I look across the bay, past the mangrove trees and the seashells scattered along the shoreline. And something familiar happens — the sun is rising. God is giving us another day. That hasn’t changed. In fact, it’s been happening every single day since the beginning of time:

“God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” — Genesis 1:16

While the world around us changes — sometimes for better, sometimes not — I’m thankful for the consistency of God’s providence over His creation. I thank Him for the rising sun over this place where I once walked barefoot as a child … and where I now walk in sandals as a senior citizen.

These eyes still recognize it — familiar, yet different.