Photo Credit: NASA
My son is fond of saying, “Mom, I’ve been around the sun ten times.” And last year, he had traveled “nine times”. Yes, he has. I hadn’t thought of it quite that way until he had spoken it. I’m not sure how many more times we’ll go ’round before he stops reminding me how many times it’s been….
You know what, though? I love it. I smile.
A day will come when he’ll tower over me and I won’t need the reminder and he won’t feel the need to tell me.
It reminds me that we’re all traveling around the sun. I’ve traveled a few years around the sun now, and the days are more blurred than I’d like them to be. I don’t want to remember them as grayish shadows moving too fast for me to capture. I want vivid color, sharp moments, with smells and sounds easily evoked. Not a fast whirring memory with me holding empty plates and laundry baskets and books unread, scratching my head and wondering… where did the time go?
What does time mean to the One who stands outside of it? to the One who created time, the earth, with its days
and nights and seasons, and the rest of the spinning planet-tops? How does He see things? Why, when I look back, is it more of a blur, like we’re all spinning at a high speed and the pictures are out of focus?
Yet one moment stands clear, in stark focus, a moment that gives meaning and hope to all other moments: when Jesus died, that one moment in time– history’s pivot point. He was born to die.
He is the centripetal force that has continuously pulled me in, keeping me tethered, so I don’t fly off in a black hole, forever lost. His gift of love gives all other moments purpose, full of hope, pregnant with fruit.
I think of his anguish in Gethsemane, and then his lonely walk staring at dusty feet and hardened faces… and how his heart broke even before the nails broke through flesh.
This I know. Jesus loves me. He told me so. He walked the way himself, and showed me so.
His death and resurrected body is a doorway to a new resurrected life, life awake to freedom and love, a rescue from the chains of sin and estrangement from Truest Love. A gift, truest gift, given out of our need, and out of Love. God is the gentlest, as He is the strongest, to hold himself back when He wants us so much to come to Him.
Each day we’re given, when we wake up from night, resurrected from sleep, to the wonders and gift of a new day, full of possibilities, is a wondrous gift, with fruit to be born and shared, and with a harvest ripe for picking. Each day is a day of pruning, growing, bearing…loving.
What I’m learning, w
hat is new, is how I want to be one who remembers, not one who forgets, and one way to do this, and shorten the chasm between longing and really living, is by fully living in the moments He’s giving.
Another time around the sun is a gift. How do you remember your times around the sun?
{For the next three days, my own two feet and hands will be planning and preparing a Messianic Seder for the first time. New for me, I’ll stumble through, but we’ll stop and reflect together, sharing bread and the fruit of the vine and reading Scripture…thanking Him for the gift of Life… and prayerfully begin a new tradition. Blessed week to you.}
Walking toward Easter in community, with Ann:
and with Faith Barista Bonnie:
Thank you for this.
Thank you for reading, God bless you.
I pray that your seder will be a blessing to you and those you prepare it for. I’ve never done one all-out, but I would love to participate in one if I have more times around the sun. A beautiful post.
This is a simpler one, not a full complete version, but it’s a start, with my family and one other family. I found a nice guide all written out that someone posted online. I’m greatly looking forward to it. Thank you, Lisa, God bless you.
I wonder, too, what times means to the One who created it. Interesting question that makes a smile play upon my lips.
A question that takes some time figuring out, Jen…I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for commenting!
I too want to be one who remembers…one who sees. This is just such a lovely reflection, especially at Eastertide. And here we go…around the sun :). What a wise boy you have.
I do hope these kids grow up to be wise… I hope each year around the sun makes me wiser, too! 🙂 Blessings to you, friend.
This is beautiful! I love the things our children say, don’t you? I love this ” His gift of love gives all other moments purpose, full of hope, pregnant with fruit.” Happy Easter..
Yes, kids say some amazing things… that I could have innocent faith and lack of inhibition… we have a lot to learn from our children.
“Not a fast whirring memory with me holding empty plates and laundry baskets and books unread, scratching my head and wondering… where did the time go?” and “He is the centripetal force that has continuously pulled me in, keeping me tethered, so I don’t fly off in a black hole, forever lost.” So, so good!!
Thanks for reading, Shaunie, blessings.
Beautiful. Yes we have to slow down to full live in those moments don’t we?