Where did all the time go?

Remember the saying “time flies when you're having fun?” Recently, another thought has made its track through my mind repeatedly.




“Where did all the time go?”



With school beginning, fall seems to be right around the corner and we all know that Christmas will quickly follow. It seems only days ago my family were huddled close together under a canopy on the beach during a thunderstorm. Switching boogie boards and shovels for lunchboxes and book bags, time boogies on...



From late summer to fall, we will be celebrating my childrens' birthdays along with those of my three grandchildren. It becomes a time of nostalgia for me personally. Looking back on the years that have passed seems to come naturally. Yesterday it seemed everything was shouting full in my ears,



“WHERE DID ALL THE TIME GO?”



My nine year old grandson sat with me for the first time in a long time during worship service. When did he get so tall and learn to clap his own hands? A memory of his chubby body sitting on my lap as I helped him raise his hands in praise made me more than a little misty eyed. He showed me some hand motions to the song we were singing and I was taken back to our time in Bible club when he and I learned some hand motions for Proverbs 3:5-6.



Later in the day, my six year old granddaughter sent me a text...



”I lost my 4th tooth! Pulled it myself.”



It was the top one and one of several getting loose enough to be replaced by the grown up teeth and I heard these thoughts echoing in my brain... “4th tooth.... 1st grade...Texted her message to me.”



“Where did all the time go?”



And then there's the baby grandson who will soon be two. Wasn't it just the other day I was planting kisses on his forehead as he drank from a bottle and I sang Jesus Loves Me into his tiny ears? Just opened Facebook to find a video of this precious one giving a kiss on camera. Thank goodness for technology! I can appreciate those kinds of kisses before I get his text saying he's got a new lunchbox or the tooth fairy made a visit to their home! Time marches on!



As I sit here in the quiet, only trash trucks interrupting the solitude of the moment, I allow my mind to take me on a sentimental journey,like looking into the Viewmaster I owned as a child, pressing the lever and viewing photos of my children, one by one. I almost feel as if I'm there again.



There she is, the dark haired girl in a plaid dress smiling for my camera on her first day of school, another “cutie patootie snaggletoothie.” And like a slide show the next emerges... her brown eyed brother showing me his Karate Kid moves. Didn't I just view a video of his son doing the same thing this week?



“Where did all the time go?”



The clock is always ticking and the busyness of life in our youth sometimes prevents our awareness of the simple and imperceptible ways our lives are being knit together with the next generation. When one becomes a grandparent, there seems to be more time to think about the simple things of life. With long term memory becoming keener, one might even entertain a memory or two of one's own first lunchbox or visit from the tooth fairy.



One thing is for certain, perception changes and the day to day moments that make up a lifetime seem more like a treasure box of riches to be opened and savored as each year passes. It's almost as if I catch a glimpse of a golden thread running through the ages and generations, tying our hearts together and pulling us into eternity where we will one day share timeless treasures together and never ask...



“Where did all the time go?”