Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away?

Dear Fellow Travelers,

          Yesterday marked the 18^th anniversary of my mother’s physical death. Today marks the 1^st day of my two granddaughter’s high school career. 

          It is very difficult for me to believe that it has been 18 years since Jesus escorted my mother into that Celestial City we call Heaven, but it has—every day of it. I was sitting by her bed in the Medical Center of Central Georgia looking directly at her, as she took her last breath. Before she could completely exhale that last breath, the Spirit of the Living God breathed into her a fresh infusion of the Breath of Life, and that mortal put on immortality—absolutely, positively, no doubt about it. For Mama, time ceased to exist. For those of us she left behind, the clock has, however, continued to tick—second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, and year by year. So far, 18 years have come and gone—roughly, 567,648,000 seconds!—but for Mama, not even one second has passed. I can only imagine (can barely do that!) what she is experiencing, but I can tell you with certainty that she has no desire to re-enter this crazy, time-centered, sin-infested jungle in which we live. Even after 18 years, I still miss her, but I am so thankful that she is at Home, not her home-away-from-home, but her Home, Home.

             For some reason, this made me think of Willie Nelson’s song: Well hello there. It's been a

 long, long time.  How am I doing? Oh well, I guess I'm doing fine. It's been so long now and it seems

 that it was only yesterday. Ain't it funny how time slips away?

          At this point, however, the thought of time slipping away ain’t so funny. I am in no particular hurry to join Mama because I am eager to watch Sydney & Caroline enjoy these incredible days of their lives. In all probability, these will be some of the best days of their lives, and I want to watch them enjoy them. There will be boyfriends galore, cars (eventually, I hope), dancing recitals, cross country races, lots of studying for courses like math, biology, language, history, chemistry, information science (didn’t have this in my day!), and body sculpting (didn’t have this in my day, either!), dances, and proms. Before I can blink my eye, there will be SAT tests, college visitations, career choices, and who knows what else. All in all, the next four years will last for roughly 126,230,400 seconds (not very long at all!), at which time they will be leaving home, to find their own homes. 

          No, it really ain’t funny how time slips away, but thankfully, when the time allotted for me, does finally slip away, this mortal will have put on immortality, too!

         

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29 NASB).