#WE Blinked
“There is a time for everything, and
a season for every activity under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)
Graduation season is here and I’ve quit counting the number of #WeBlinked social media posts I’ve seen in the last two weeks. Most of the “blinked” posts include side by side photos of a student on the first day of kindergarten alongside a picture of the same student in a high school graduation cap and gown. The phrase “we blinked” points to both the brevity and speed of life when you’re in the middle of parenting.
But the WeBlinked hashtag certainly applies to other life seasons as well. It seems like only yesterday when I took my Daddy to an outpatient nephrology center for his access placement to begin his dialysis treatments for renal failure. The requisite paperwork took a long time, and Daddy grew impatient and frustrated as we waited.
“Baby, would you please tell these people that this little boy is really sick?” he asked.
I remember laughing to myself at the ridiculous thought of this 77-year-old great-grandfather considering himself to be a little boy. Instead, I nodded and simply said, “Yes, sir. I’ll tell them!”
It turned out that while Daddy’s aging body was quickly failing him, his mind was not. He realized what the medical professionals were just minutes from discovering. Daddy was indeed very sick, not just with renal problems, but also with heart issues. We didn’t get his vascular access that day. We got an emergency ambulance ride to a local hospital. A few days later, Daddy had a massive heart attack and never regained consciousness.
That was twenty years ago, and I am now in my seventh decade of life and just a few years from my dad’s age at the time of his death. I now have a much better understanding of aging and Daddy’s perspective on time. How did the time pass so quickly?
I’ve often heard parenting described as that season where “the days are long, but the years are short.” It’s easy to be nostalgic about parenting when eighteen-year-olds are graduating, but make no mistake: parenting is challenging no matter the life season. Once you become a parent, you’re always a parent even as your hands-on care decreases. Your prayers never do!
I vividly remember an incident that happened over forty years ago in a small-town Winn-Dixie. I was a young mom trying to buy groceries with three small children under five years old. That morning, I was pushing two grocery carts, one for our groceries and one for my two youngest children. My four-year-old daughter walked beside me while our oldest son sat in one of the buggies. Our youngest son lay sleeping in his infant car seat nestled in the second cart. Needless to say, it was slow going with my shopping!
An elderly woman who appeared to be in her eighties approached me in the middle of the store and emphatically said, “You may not realize it now, but these are the best days of your life!” At that moment, I thought she was crazy, but she was right. I blinked and those days were gone.
My children are now grown and in the middle of the happy, but exhausting, chaos of parenting their own children. There are sleepless nights, constant care, endless carpools, fervent prayers, and never enough time or energy. But the same God that enabled my Mama and Daddy to parent and raise me, is the same God who helped Bruce and me raise our children. God is the God who never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) And while our days are finite and limited (Psalm 90:10), God is timeless and eternal.
Moses penned a prayer 3500 years ago declaring, “From everlasting to everlasting, you are God…A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by or like a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:2, 4)
God never slumbers, sleeps, or blinks (Psalm 121:3). He is sovereign; he reigns and rules. Our times- all of our times and life seasons- are in his hands (Psalm 31:15) and we can trust him in both life and death. He is faithful!