Time, Time, Tickin'...

So, about six weeks or so ago I came home from work to a most amazing scene. My husband practically met me at the door to say: "Your son has something he wants to show you."

"Mommy, come here!" his voice rang out from the hallway. So I went through the den and peeked around the corner to see this:

Look carefully. He's so proud. And can you guess what he had been doing? I knew immediately, because I had been watching him copy the times off of the digital clock under the television for days. My husband reported that for a full fifteen minutes, our son would copy the time onto a piece of paper and then put it in the marching line in the hallway, only to begin again as soon as the minute changed. He did both sides of the paper, so when you flipped a sheet over, you saw 1158 and 1204, for example.

He left out the colons, but he still marked every minute of time for fifteen minutes of his life and left the evidence of his focus all down our hall.

It got me thinking about just how quickly those minutes change and turn to hours, and how those hours turn to days, and those days to weeks, and those weeks to months, and the months to years. And how do we mark that time? How do we honor the truth of each minute? And do we recognize God's presence in each time?

I realize that I haven't been the best blogger here recently. The past few months have brought lots of twists and turns, and I've been preoccupied. Time has marched on, and I've just tried to hang on for the ride, giving honor to each death and to the grief it brings, while celebrating moments of joy and peace in a spirit of thanksgiving to God.

I've also been faced with many questions and struggles over the past year, as I'm sure most of us have. These struggles have been personal as well as vocational, dealing with family and church life. As a family and as a church family, we've tried together to discern the best paths ahead, the ones into which Christ would lead.

But today is New Year's Eve, and I look forward to the calendar's turn-over. I look forward to a new year. I hope it is full of hope, health, love, celebration, and joy. Perhaps it will involve adding a new "little one" to our family through international adoption...we're working on that. Perhaps it will lead to peace with our family just the way it is. Perhaps...

What is sure is this: God already knows what 2010 will hold, and will hold us through it. Thanks be to the Lord for that!