long days, short years

This past week, Allie celebrated her eighteenth birthday and her graduation. This year, we have three who will turn sixteen. Next year, three others will graduate from high school. Milestones, all of them, the years flashing before our eyes.

Recently, I read something in a book that made me think about the passage of time…it went something like this: “The days are long; the years are short.” I never thought of it that way, but it is the way it seems to me. The days go by with their challenges…sixty minutes an hour, twenty-four hours at a time….and they can be tiring to the bone.

But when I look back on the years, and they seem to zoom by. Special dates may highlight the significant years…”that year… I turned fifty, I started working there, so-and-so got married, was born or died….,” so that certain years are used as benchmarks. But otherwise, the years seem to race by … one after another…melting together in a haze.

At times, I get so caught up in the everyday “stuff,” that I forget about the “big picture.” Actually, though, the moments, the days, the months, and the years are weaving together to piece together the fabric of my life. In this life, I have a bird’s eye view of the creation of my life; but one day, the full cloth will be spread out and seen as a whole…viewed in the light of eternal significance…on display forever, for all to see.

As Julia Fletcher wrote:
“Little drops of water, little grains of sand, make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land. So the little minutes, humble though they be, make the mighty ages of eternity.”

I want to embrace the seconds and minutes of my life. I want to have a joyful and celebratory life, but I also desire acceptance of the times of pain and sorrow, knowing that hard times can give me insight and faith that I couldn’t have otherwise.

Lord, help me to look to you at all times, through all things. Help me to be faithful…to be trusting…to be thankful…and to love you no matter what comes my way…all the seconds of my days.

g