If Time Were a Video...

"Hey, come here, four-year-old boy!" I said, grabbing Bantam4 for a cuddle.

He hugged me tightly and then sat up straight on my lap. "I don't like to be four," he complained.

"Why not?" I asked. "Four years old is just right for you!"

"No, I want to be a big boy!"

***

Later, the same day:

Chicklet7 asks, "Mom, can you ever rewind the world?"

"Do you mean, go back and do things over again?"

"Yes, I mean like go back and be a baby again."

"Would you like to remember what it was like when you were a baby? We should watch some videos that we took when you were little. We can rewind them--but no, you can't rewind the world. Sometimes I wish you could, but you can't."

***

She wants to rewind, he wants to fast-forward.

I think I'm with Chicklet these days. My kids are growing up so fast. While it's great to see my teenagers developing into young adults who will be capable of leaving home in a few short years, I have to say that lately I am grieving the end of an era, so to speak, when we were all home together most of the time--as frustrating as that was at times!

I miss my big kids when they are at school. I miss homeschooling them. It was a blessed time, and I truly did appreciate it while we were in the midst of it. And now, very abruptly, it seems, it is over, with them at least. It's one of the many changes that have happened since our move, and tonight, I feel homesick for the old house and the old friends and especially, for the old days.

Thank you, Lord, for the joys and blessings we have experienced as a family. So many good things we have received from your hand. Though a thousand years are as a day in your sight, thank you for new mercies every morning for we creatures who are bound by time. I will trust you, Lord, with tomorrow.