“Looking Back,” it says at the top of one page  of one of our local newspapwers, the NORTHERN NEWS, August 28, 2013.

It says there also “The NORTHERN NEWS has a wealth of photographs from days gone by – what we need are the stories that lie behind them.”

I have hardly any photographs from my past, but I remember stories.

There is one story I will never forget.

“Milestones” is a feature in the same paper. And the following story is a milestone in my life. It happened exactly 55 years ago – September 2, 1958 – when  I passed from darkness to light, from death to life. 

On September 2, 1958 I had my second birthday. When a person is born the second time the Holy spirit creates new life in that person.

The second birth is not different to the first birth. In a second we pass from darkness to light, from death to life. With other words there is a “once” and a “now” in our lives.

We are reading about the “once” and “now” in Ephesians 5:8 and First Peter 2:9. Notice also the words “darkness” and “light”.

In the verses John 5:24 and First John 3:14 we are reading about “death” and “life.”

This is what the Lord Jesus Christ says about DEATH and LIFE in John 5:24: 

“‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from DEATH to LIFE.'” 

Can you look back to a second birthday in your life?