Time Keeps On Slippin'...

Well! It has been 2 weeks since I've last posted. Why? Well ya shoulda seen last week! Just a whole lot happened that made for - shall we say - a very "interesting" week. Some of it the usual ups and downs of life - both personally and in church life. Some of it highly unusual - those "middle-of-the-night phone calls" kind of events. You know the ones I'm talking about - the phone calls that change life in a heartbeat.

Part of what happened to me last week is that I came to a realization that yes, it really is only 3 weeks until our son Craig's wedding (2 weeks as I write this). WHAT?!?!?!?! How did that happen? Okay, okay, what with moving to a new home, officiating at an out-of-town wedding, spending a week teaching at Jumonville Retreat Center, acclimating to a new home, new church and new community - maybe, just maybe I've been a little preoccupied with other things.

But on a deeper level - how did it happen? How did my "baby boy" become a man so quickly? How did my first-born grow up so fast? It seems as though just last week that I had to make my way through his Lego building maze in the living room where he built castle after castle for his "He-Man" characters that he played with hour on end. Wasn't it just yesterday that he was exploring his toes for the first time? I remember the day I carried him home from the hospital - all 8 pounds 10 ounces of him, scared to death that I wouldn't know how to care for this precious life God had entrusted to my care. Would I know what he wanted when he cried? What if he got sick? Would I be able to show him how much I loved him - would he ever realize how much I loved him?

It hit me last week as I finally found my "mother-of-the-groom" dress that this was really happening. He would really stand with Meghan, holding hands and promising each other their loyalty and love for a lifetime. To paraphrase the song "Sunrise, Sunset," - 'Where is my little boy at play? I don't remember growing older, when did he?'

Steve Miller is a songwriter & singer from the 1960's & 1970's -- "my music," which is now on Oldies radio channels I might add! (Another 'how did that happen' moment, too!) Steve Miller sang a song, the refrain of which is "Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin', into the future." That's about how I feel right now - time keeps on slippin' away into the future while I keep saying, "Some day I'd like to...travel more...devote more time to some of my hobbies like quilting and needlework...learn how to weave on a loom and tat...read more...etc., etc., etc." If not now, then when? It's kind of like the old adage - you never see "I wish I spent more time at work" on some one's tombstone.

The preacher writes in Ecclesiastes, "To every thing there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace." (Ecclesiastes 3:1-7)

In the 1960's a band called The Byrds sang a song based on this passage of Scripture and added, "I hope it's not too late." I really must be feeling nostalgic with all these 1960's song references, but I guess it's part of where I'm at with all the transitions going on in our lives this year - living the farthest away from our hometowns since our marriage over 27 years ago, adjusting to all the new things in our lives, and the marriage of our son with the addition of a new family member, Meghan our soon to be daughter-in-law. I hope it's not too late to live life to its fullest.

Maybe it's all about balance -- knowing what season of life we're in, realizing what it's time for. In two weeks it will be a time to weep and a time to dance. Come September 1 (Craig's & Meghan's wedding date) I'll be doing a bit of both - dancing for joy at their happiness and the wonderful young man Craig has grown to be - but also some weeping - both tears of joy and tears of pain. Joy for the beginning of Craig's and Meghan's lives together and a little twinge at my heart strings for "my little boy grown to be a man."

The one thing I know for certain is the fact that God is the author and owner of all time. The preacher in Ecclesiastes says it this way: "I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by." (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15).

So on September 1, 2007, I'll be sitting in the front row on the groom's side with a smile on my face and tears in my eyes, savoring the convergence of past memories, the present moment and future hope for our lives together, knowing that our past, present and future are all a part of the eternity of God. And I'll stand in awe before God.

By God's Grace,
Michelle