As children grow and mature in our families, something wonderful and powerful happens. A love and an attachment strengthens day by day that becomes stronger than any glue. Family…home…mother… father…those words take on a very special meaning as time passes.
Those years pass by so quickly, especially when we look back at them in our memory. The diapers, “sleepless nights”, facing the challenges of early school years – they cause us to look forward to a time when the children are grown.
It is then that we realize how quickly the time has gone by and regret replaces impatience. Where did they go? And all of a sudden it seems they are grown and gone. They are our children, but they are no longer children. It is then that men like me write words encouraging parents to enjoy their children to the fullest at every stage, to take full advantage of every opportunity to love them, to teach them, to warn them, to train up each child “in the way he should go…” Proverbs 22:6. Then the day comes when they go off to college, or marry and establish their own home. It can be a sad time…and a very happy time.
Several years ago a man whose children were grown and gone from home wrote the following haunting words. Those of us who have been blessed with children would do well to heed those words.
“The rooms in our house sound completely empty, although they are filled with beautiful furniture. There is no patter of little feet in the long hallway. The little cradle, the playpen, the high chair and the baby bed are stored in the attic. There are no toys scattered over the floor for us to pick up. A rag doll, a set of toy dishes, a baseball cap and a glove are all piled in the corner of a closet. Some soiled storybooks gather dust on the shelf.
We hear no cry of fear in the night caused by a troubled dream or a plea for a drink of water at the midnight hour. The are no little voices asking a thousand questions or begging for a Bible story. There are no little bodies cuddled close in our arms seeking comfort and safety, or to have a childish heartache eased. There are no little curly heads bowed in prayer beside the bed at night. There are no “good night” kisses.
There is no sound of laughter in the yard from children playing. There are no little faces to wash, ears to inspect and hair to be brushed in preparation for school or church assemblies. There are no scuffing of shoes on the front walk and slamming of doors as they rush in from school to raid the refrigerator.
“While thy servants were busy here and there, they were gone.”
We hear the postman’s whistle, but we do not rush out expecting a letter from a boy or a girl who is away at college.
We receive wedding invitations and we attend weddings, but they only remind us that while we “were busy here and there”, our own children had slipped away and built homes of their own.
All we can do now is wait day after day, listening and hoping that one or more of our grandchildren will come to visit us; then again we can hear the patter of little feet and childish laughter throughout the house. But we realize with sad hearts that again, they too will slip away and be gone from us forever.”............ H. G. Stubblefield
Solomon and the Holy Spirit address this issue, informing us that as time passed – even those “hard days” we faced – we realize that opportunities also had passed. Words we wanted to speak, thoughts we wanted to share, wisdom we needed to pass on to our children can no longer be given. Solomon’s words are appropriate to the task of being a parent, for they are the thoughts of a loving God reminding us of the days and the children with which we were blessed for such a short time:
“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward,” Psalms 127:3.
You and I know how easy it is to “wish” those years and times away. Yes, children do take up a lot of our time and our energy. They can be expensive and can frustrate us as we try to teach them the ways of life. Tears are many as we ponder our memories and our lost opportunities, but Solomon was exactly right. He continued on this subject this way:
“As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate,” Psalms 127:4-5.
Tears may come as we ponder these thoughts, but whether they are tears of sorrow or joy will depend upon how we lived and how we taught those children.
