Sometimes, the passing of time is marked not by birthdays or changing dates, but by events. A baby starts crawling, then walking, and then they are toddlers who are running away from you. One day a toilet flushes and a kid walks out of the bathroom and it hits you that they aren't wearing diapers anymore. You go to pick someone up, but all of a sudden they're too heavy for you.
Yesterday, two little boys were riding bikes with training wheels. Only a few weeks ago, one of those little boys had to get off the bike and walk it over every bump in the road because he was afraid of falling.
Today, the training wheels are gone, and they are speeding away from me in the street.
I was immensely proud and happy for them, but as I watched them go, I was also a little sad. This is the beginning, I thought. This is where, little by little, they come back to me less often than they are going away. They are little boys now and Mama is the center of the universe, but that won't last much longer. I know that's the way it's supposed to be. You love them and raise them up until they are ready to be out in the universe on their own. And you hope that you're at least an orbiting moon in their lives.
Look at big sister: wasn't she a baby yesterday? Soon she'll be a teenager. It doesn't happen overnight, but sometimes it feels like it does.
It's easy to forget in the middle of a chaotic day/year/life that this season, whatever season you're in, doesn't last forever. Before you know it, it's all over, and you're wondering where the time went.
"Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." -James 4:14
No comments:
Post a Comment