Yes, it’s October 4, so what? Regular blog readers might remember that I always recognize October 4…1957, but since we just celebrated our 57th anniversary, I have 57 on the brain. For example, this lovely vehicle was parked at our anniversary celebration hotel:

I’m not a car buff, but I recognize a ’57 Chevrolet when I see one. I remember when it came out, in an era when you could tell one car from another and one car’s model year from another.

However, its license plate gives one pause:

How does it feel when the license plate on a car I remember well is labeled “antique”? I know…old.

I was 10 years old, and in the sixth grade on October 4, 1957, the day the world’s first earth-orbiting satellite was launched by the Soviet Union. It was called, simply, Sputnik, the Russian word for satellite.

Less than twelve years later, July 20, 1969, the United States put a man on the moon. Thirteen years later I was tracking Sputnik’s successors from a radar site in Turkey. Today, we carry in our hand a device that picks up signals from a constellation of satellites and tells us exactly where we are and how to get to where we want to go.

King Solomon was a very wise man, and he was right about a lot of things. I don’t think he was right about this one:

That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us. (Ecclesiastes 1.9, 10, NKJV)

Smart people continue God’s work of creation, and in many ways we are better for it. Let’s celebrate technology today. Another day we can bemoan some of the problems.

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth… (Isaiah 43.18, NKJV)