How blessed we are <3

Yesterday I got a big old piece of white paper and a marker and I mapped out some areas of goals and dreams and tasks and plans for the next few months.

Later my sister-in-law sent me a pic of her kitchen table all spread out with calendars and papers and pen in hand…making plans.

A new season has opened wide before us as spring has dropped the last of her blossoms and the tiny shoots of green in the fields nearby are growing into corn stalks right before our very eyes.

Honestly…

they seem to be an inch taller by the time we make it around the circle and back on an evening walk.

Time is a gift, you know.

The days and the seasons and even the years.

Oh and even as I say it…I can tell you I struggle to let go.

Because to embrace the new…we have to release our hold on what was.

To make room for today, I have to let go of yesterday.

Because the only thing that never changes is …

well…you know…

that things are constantly changing.

I secretly envy people who make these transitions so easily.

They seem to have mastered the art of “out with the old and in with the new”…

free of the strings of over-thinking the passing of time.

The ones who could always sort through their children’s closets in an hour and pull out the too-small-for-this-year items to be donated.

It was done and done.

And then off to the pool or the ball game.

Me…

I would sit there holding each one.

Remembering the events around the item…the little being that wore it…holding tight to it so I wouldn’t lose the memory with the garment.

This morning my readings included Psalm 102.

I find in them a kindred spirit.

I wonder if this one was also one who sat and lingered as days passed into seasons and then to years that slipped away a bit too quickly.

I wonder if he also wistfully watched each day come to an end hoping for just a few more minutes to hold tightly to it before it was gone.

Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

They will perish, but You will endure;

Yes, they will all grow old like a garment;

Like a  cloak You will change them,

And they will be changed.

But You are the same,

And Your years will have no end.

The children of Your servants will continue,

And their descendants will be established before You.  vv 25-27

I don’t know how to be any different than I am.

I will probably always be a mix of emotions as time marches on.

But I am learning to lift the bitter…and the sweet…and the bittersweet of my memories and my treasures from today and yesterday as an offering of praise to the God who gave each to me as a gift.

 

To return them to our God-Who-Never-Changes.

A fragrant offering to Him.

And then with hands and heart wide open….

to journey onward into today.

Our memories can only be entrusted to Him.

He holds them as safely as He holds our hearts.

He is a tender and loving God.

In His hands our past is redeemed…healed…made holy.

We can trust Him with the preciousness of all of our Best Day Ever’s…

Forever

<3