Last Saturday, Sue and I were going through some old photos from way back. I mean, WAY BACK when we living in Alaska and Oregon. Our intent was to weed out the duplicates, and throw away those pictures that you can't remember why you took them (you know what I mean). Anyway, as I was looking at some of the pictures of Andrew and Rachel when they were little, I realized in a new way what my parents always said to me..."Time goes by so fast."
It seems that just a few years ago we were teaching them how to ride bikes, and reading the Chronicles of Narnia to them. Wasn't it just a while ago that Andrew was earning his first Sparky award at AWANA? Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that Rachel got her first kitten? That hike up to Lookout Mt. - that wasn't that long ago, was it? Where did all that time go? What hit me the hardest was - I'll never have those days again. It makes me wonder if what I said to them was worthwhile, and if what we did together made any difference to them. Will their memories of their growing up years be fond ones, or sad ones?
Andrew and Rachel are both young adults now. Rachel lives and works on her own in Louisville. She has her own apartment and car. We help her a little by letting her come down and do her laundry, but other than that she is fully independent and doing pretty well as far as we can tell. Andrew shares an apartment with some other EKU students in Richmond, KY, and works and goes to college. He's grown into a responsible young man that any mom and dad would be proud of. Both of them are learning that life is not easy, but that God is always good. I pray for them every day and ask the Lord to keep drawing them closer to Himself. Outside of a few fatherly exhortations on the phone, that is about all I can do now.
When I put Josiah to bed that night, it was different. I hugged him and prayed with him and breathed in the smell of his freshly washed hair and just asked the Lord to help me enjoy being his dad. Because pretty soon he'll be out on his own too and all I'll have is pictures to remind me of these days. This time will go by too fast.
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