By Lucia Lloyd, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Heathsville, VA
If I could make Days last Forever
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
"He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;
yet they cannot fathom what God
has done from beginning to end."
I can hardly believe how much my daughters have grown up! It seems like kids must get older at an entirely different speed than the rest of us do, like dog years. I am amazed by how fast their childhood is speeding by, even though it seems odd to me that it would be amazing. I remember how often, when I was a new mother, older women would say to me, “It goes by so fast.” It is a common bit of wisdom to give to new mothers, passed along from one generation to the next.
I think of the song “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof, as parents watch their daughter’s wedding:
Is this the little girl I carried,
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older,
When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty,
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday when they were small?
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly flow the days.
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,
Blossoming even as we gaze.
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years,
One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears.
Well before my daughters entered earthly life, I liked that song. The 28-year-old I used to be chose that song for the dance with my father at my wedding reception. My father had left this transitory life before the arrival of his grandchildren, but he was alive and well at that wedding. For my first dance with my new husband, we chose the Jim Croce song, “Time in a Bottle.”
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with
Time must have been very much on the mind of that 28-year-old bride-to-be, as she planned her wedding and tried to imagine what kind of future she was committing herself to. I think of that bride-to-be sometimes. I thought of her as I watched the Royal Wedding, and I think of her at other weddings. I think of the new mother I used to be as I see other parents adjusting to the huge transition of a new person in their lives. And I find myself telling them, “It goes by so fast.”
I love the beauty of Virginia in the springtime. It really does evoke words like “glorious” and “exquisite.” I have a magnificent view from the front yard of my house. In one glance I can see the whole landscape: the dogwoods and tulips on the St. Margaret’s campus, as well as the Rappahannock River, and across the river the green trees of the Northern Neck, and above it all the expanse of sky, often with a seagull or an osprey soaring through it. I get to see the whole gorgeous landscape at once. On one afternoon when I was admiring this landscape, my daughter pointed out to me a small green inchworm, inching along on its leaf. I wished there was some way for me to convey the splendor of the landscape I saw to this little bug on the leaf, whose vision is so limited.
I wonder if our view of space is like God’s view of time. Unlike the inchworm, I can see all of the landscape at once, in a glance: the flowers, the river, the trees. To see all of them together, in all their beauty. Is that what God’s view of time is like: to see all at once in a glance: the past, the present, the future. Does God see the landscape of time the way we see the landscape of space? Are the past, the present, and the future all there together, in all their beauty?
As we humans inch along like little green inchworms, does God want to convey to us the splendor of the whole landscape? The sacredness of time?
The people who have rich spiritual lives keep encouraging us to recognize the sacredness of time. This connection to the sacredness of time is more important than ever in the 21st century, when we are so inclined to rush through our days, or, ironically, to become impatient anytime we are not rushing! Would we be horrified if we thought about the phrase, “killing time”? Would we be even more horrified to realize all the ways we take this most precious gift of time and kill it?
It is more valuable than ever that the Church provides the spiritual disciplines we need to look up from whatever we are preoccupied with, and recognize the sacredness of time. Taking an hour each Sunday morning to worship God helps us to do two things: to recognize the holiness of the present moment, and to get the concerns that seem so huge into a broader perspective. God helps us inchworms to recognize the holiness of the leaf we’re on. And God helps us inchworms to see that the leaf we’re on is a small part of a broad and beautiful landscape.
05/01/11
Note: If you are still confused about how a gay Christian can feel they are 'right' with God I encourage you to read the section of the web site entitled "Gay and Christian? YES!"