Furby is back! The must-have toy of 1998 will return this holiday season, but this isn’t your father’s Furby.

If you can remember back to about 1998 (hint: most of us were about 6 years old), you may remember that you most likely had a fuzzy little friend called Furby. He started out only speaking furb-ish, but after spending countless hours with him, you could teach him to talk and he would even play games with you! If you are anything like me, you HAD to have a Furby. Not just because he was all the rage back then, but because he was cute, fuzzy, and could interact with you better than any of your other toys could.

I've noticed recently that I have started to see more and more commercials for Furby. Furby has made a comeback, and he holds more interactive possibilities than ever before. His eyes are electronic and make different expressions, he dances, and if you have a smart phone you can even feed him. The very fact that the commercial line stated above says "This isn't your father's Furby" demonstrates that this is targeting little kids that are going to beg their nostalgic parents to buy a toy that reminds them of their past OR parents will see this new Furby and want their kids to enjoy it just as much as they did when they were young. Thus, nostalgia sells the product. At first, I thought it was dumb. I hate it when companies try to make new and improved toys from an original, because they usually end up destroying its purpose in the process. So I went and explored the website at www.furby.hasbro.com  for information on this new imposter... and I miss my Furby!

The more I watched the videos of people interacting with their new and improved Furby and the more times I custom designed my own Furby, the more I wanted my own little cocoa-colored cutie from when I was young. The problem is, my Furby's batteries eventually died, and my mom put him away in storage, possibly never to be found again. Therefore, my initial thoughts immediately went to buying this new and improved Furby, so that I could go back to the time when school was no problem and I got to spend hours playing with my friends and their Furby's, instead of spending hours in the library with barely enough coffee to keep me awake.

While I initially was about to spend $60 to relive this memory of happier times, I chose not to. Not because it would have been wrong to buy a Furby, but because that memory is in the past, and that is where it should stay. I wouldn't have wanted my Furby to go out and find a new human, so why should I get the "new and improved Furby?" I probably wouldn't have used him for much longer than a month or two anyway. The point is, my life is here and now, and I shouldn't be spending it playing with a new and improved version of a toy that has outlived its time in my life.

Isaiah 43:18-19 says, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." While it is good to reminisce and think about the good things that happened in the past, we need to make sure that we are living in the time that God has given us now. He is doing wonderful things in my life, and I don't need to fill any voids in my life with a new Furby. My first Furby will always have a special place in my heart, but now that he is gone God can use that time that I have to put to something that will forward his kingdom and/or my future...

Maybe someday I'll get my kids a Furby. But today, I have homework to do.