On Seasons and Goings

This …

This is a time for babies coming in our family.  We all breathed sighs of relief and shared feelings of joy as we welcomed a new little girl into this crazy bunch just last week.

And some time in the near future we will welcome another little one!  Whether this one will be a girl or a boy will be a surprise to us, but we will be delighted to celebrate either way… because we are thankful for each one.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 

a time to be born…”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 (ESV)

This is an exciting time for us all as we are welcoming Great Grandchild #20 and #21 into this world.

The counting of the great grandchildren is something that Bud’s dad started years ago. There are times when the names seem secondary.  He told us that he wanted 20 great grandchildren; and so the counting began…

At that time, the goal was years away. 

Now it is a reality. 

Time flies.

Babies grow up and move on… and out.

As if to prove that point, in my family, this season is also the time of moving out.  Two nieces of mine are starting college out of town right after finishing high school no less! 

(Aren’t they supposed to wait until their 70’s to do that?)

Time flies.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”

This is what’s on my heart as I am watching so many moms saying their good byes to their children.

 

But they aren't children, are they?

Well, how can they not be? 

Wasn’t it just yesterday you were teaching them how to tie their shoes, 

and they just weren’t getting it? 

How are you supposed to just transition into letting them leave? 

To be on their own? 

To find their way in this crazy world that just seems to be getting crazier?

This reminded me of that time when my own first born was about to finish school and I was already visualizing the moving out time to come. 

This child, the one I apologized to for the mistakes I would most certainly make, before we had even walked away from the hospital with her all bundled up in pink and smelling like baby powder on that evening in November.  I remember as if it was yesterday how the first stop we made was at a good friend’s house, where I delicately handed the pink bundle into her arms and timidly begged, “Tell me what to do now”. 

Apron strings? 

They aren’t meant to be cut.  They have to be tenderly untied, even while they feel like they are tearing at your very heartstrings.

So I did what I do when I want to work things out in my mind and in my heart.

I wrote.

Your Footsteps

I still remember the first time you stepped out on your own,

So timid, so unsure and for the first time really alone…

Or so you thought

Because in reality, we were right there, arms outstretched and waiting.

Knowing you could do it, but ready just in case you needed us.

Today you take a new kind of step.

Once again, timid and a little unsure and once again, alone…

Or so you think

Because in reality, we are still right here, arms outstretched and waiting.

Knowing you can do it, but ready to give the hugs just in case you need them.

One day you’ll take another step.

The one that takes you far away from our arms, and finds you really alone…

Or so you think.

Because in reality, there are the arms of the Father

Knowing you can make it, but always there to give you all you need.

And when the day comes that you need His loving arms to hold you?

You’ll find in reality, it was His arms all along.

So to all the moms who are facing the moving out days soon?

My thoughts are for you as you watch them take those steps.

The ones that lead away…

I don’t think you ever really stop being there for your children.

Even after they have left.

Because they never leave your heart. 

And the days of coming home?  

Well, that’s a whole other story.

And it’s a good one!