Life Moves Pretty Fast

Yesterday my daughter turned 8, it seemed like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. And it seems like nothing more than a blink since she took her first steps or said her first word. I remember when the most important things in her life were Dora the Explorer and coloring, now she plays volleyball and acts in the community theater. Not long ago we had the birthday party of her choice. It was a princess dance and tea party. This year she is considering bowling or maybe swimming.

I remember how excited she was for her first day of school, and now she has landed herself on Pastor’s Honor Roll. To top it off, on the way to her birthday dinner tonight, she asked me where she should go to college. At least she told me she wanted me to pick her college out. (I probably should have gotten that in writing.)

Although Emmy spent years as my baby, I have another baby at home now, and she is already 6 months old.

And I am sure in what will seem like only days, she will be turning 8, and I’ll be helping Emmy with her college exams. And in just a few more blinks of the eye they will be all grown up, and I’ll be wishing I could change just one more dirty diaper, or get just one more princess hug.

There is great truth is what Ferris Bueller once said: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

The apostle James said it even better in James 4:14 where he wrote “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

I love the time I spend with my daughters, and the rest of my family. It’s the best times I have during the week, but how depressing it would be if this was it? If all I had with my kids was a couple eye blinks, if all the time I had with my amazing wife just a vapor being here today and gone tomorrow?

Luckily, that is not the case. My daughter has decided to follow Jesus. She turned her life over to Jesus, and recently had asked to follow Him in baptism as well. My son has also followed Jesus. And my wife had been following Him her whole life. Someday, I believe Belle will also follow her Savior. Which means this life is not all there is. I may be sad to watch my kids grow up, but I have more than just the 40 or 50 years with them. I will spend an eternity in heaven with them all.

To think it must be sad, to have only this world to look forward to. Kids that only grow up and leave. Relationships that only last for a number of years, until like a vapor they vanish away…