Greetings …
I was recently lucky enough to have some time away with my family. We stayed in Geelong and Swan Hill, taking Tony’s mum to visit some people that are important to her, knowing that she wanted to see them and could not make this trip on her own. We enjoyed our time away … sharing stories together, exploring family history, visiting historic buildings, dressing up and sampling new delicacies. It was special to listen to the reminiscing – hearing about how things were and who did what way back then.
There were things some of us did for the first time. I tasted a lemonade fruit picked right off the tree, Elizabeth typed on a typewriter, and Tony entered the Geelong Gaol. I sense that there may have been some of us who were also doing things for the last time. On the trip home Tony’s mum said that she won’t ever visit Swan Hill ever again.
All of this has had me thinking about how each of us will have ‘first times’ and ‘last times’ in life. Sometimes we know how significant things are, like when we leave our childhood home for the last time, but other times we are not aware. Few of us remember taking our first faltering steps, yet this event is so significant.
The words of Ecclesiastes 3:1 remind that that ‘for everything there is a season, and a time for ever matter under heaven’. Life is made up of millions of moments – all significant in their own way – and in meeting each of these moments head on we experience life in all its richness.
My prayer for each of us is that we might embrace the fullness of life that we are blessed to have. May we find people to laugh with, cry with and share our stories with, and may we be present to others when they are meeting their moments of life head on.
Blessings – Heather.