The past few months have been a season of loss for my husband’s family. In a span of just 4 months, they have said goodbye to their Grammy and Grandpa. Both lived full, long lives. Both were loved much and lengthy is our list of treasured memories.
With that kind of finality, it feels like I have naturally begun to take stock of my own life. Transition is in the air. The start of 2024 was a somber one to us. I have been taking extra long glances at my children, just to try and remember them as they are now. Life, it seems, is moving on rapidly. I can see them growing before my own eyes. My daughter is losing teeth and learning to read. My son, almost taller than me, is wearing contacts and going to middle school next year. I have taken notice of my husband’s new grays, and my own fine lines, too. We are all growing. I can’t do a thing to stop any of it.
I know I haven’t felt something new or different from any other mother who walks planet Earth. We grieve the stages we leave behind sometimes.
But, I am reminded of a passage in the Bible that reads,”Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father. Everything that belongs to the world—what the sinful self desires, what people see and want, and everything in this world that people are so proud of—none of this comes from the Father; it all comes from the world.” 1 John 1:15-16.
Now, next to these verses, I wrote in the margin a while back,
- Riches
- Career
- Sports
- Materialism
- Etc…
That “Etc…” seems to include my current feelings.
There is NOTHING we should cling to so tightly in this world that would keep us stuck here. Stuck in toddlerhood, elementary school, teenage years, or middle age— none of those sound pleasant! As pathetic as we are, God understands our emotional attachments to songs, clothing, and stages of our little ones. But the earthly enjoyment of all these things pales so very significantly to what awaits us who are in Jesus.
God’s design is growth and change, even if it feels difficult to move on from the familiar. But, truly, my desire is to appreciate everything from the hand of God now, and in the future. I can trust Him to lead us in the growing, however sweet or challenging it may be. The dread I tend to associate with growth can really be translated as fear, which can also be translated as not trusting the One over it all.
Yes, transition is in the air. Isn’t it always?
One last thought from Paul gives me hope, “For this reason we never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16. The fine lines may indicate aging, but my inner spirit is newer by the day. Amen!
Thank you, Lord, for the growing seasons. We become comfortable and familiar with them, just in time to see them change all over again. Help us transform to mature appreciation, and approach all our new eras with the peace of your presence, clinging only to You. Renew us and grow us in Your likeness.
