#TellHisStory: Coffee Time Lessons

"I am the Alpha and the Omega,” 
says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, 
and who is to come, the Almighty."  
Revelations 1:8

"It is 29 today,"  My daughter and I were sharing coffee in the office again this morning.

"Mmm...Twenty-nine, what?"

A smile crept onto her face.  "April.  It is 29.  Tomorrow is April 30."

"Yes," I said, after a quick check of my desktop calendar.  "Today is April 29th; tomorrow is the 30th."

Bigger smile, on her face and in her voice...  "May 1st, tomorrow..."

I love the way she thinks, sometimes.  She really does understand the passage of days and days of the week.  She gets that there's a day after tomorrow, and a day before yesterday.  But those are either details she doesn't want to waste her time with, or something between the thinking and the saying gets confused and comes out wrong.  I know what she's working her way up to - in this conversation.  Her birthday is in May.  She's been telling us that her birthday is getting closer.  Telling us on a daily basis - morning and night.  I'm guessing that birthday is pretty important to her...

"No, honey.  It's April 30th tomorrow.  May is the day after tomorrow.  But it's coming..."

Just when I think her smile can't get any bigger...

She starts counting on her fingers.  "April, May, June - "

Oops!  She passed right by that birthday month.

"July, August, September."  And she stops and looks at me.  "Kali and Rachel - babies in September."

Oh my!  It's not her birthday this morning.  It's anticipation for her cousin and my friend.  They are going to have babies in September.  Exciting for them, and apparently exciting for my daughter.  Something to look forward to - something to count time for.  Like birthdays.

My daughter teaches me so much.  When the calendar date and the simple passage of days, just counting forward, brings a smile to someone's face, as it does hers, then it seems to me she holds a kind of secret.  Maybe I can learn that secret, learn to enjoy these moments - even enjoy dates as they march by - toward something exciting.  It's not really as much a countdown, as it is a countoff.  This day is here, tomorrow is next, and then, according to my daughter, tomorrow again...

I wonder, sometimes, about God and time.  Time kind of fascinates me - the concept of moving forward or backward in time - the idea of multiple timelines.  I've had just enough physics and calculus to get myself in trouble trying to-kind-of-sort-of understand the theory behind a sum of histories - how multiple possibilities can all exist at the same moment -  I think God exists in all the possibilities.  I think His nature is way beyond our ability to understand - He lives out of time - out of physical space and distance - out of the rules and regulations of science.  Faith is our connection to God's reality.  Faith that what we can't and don't understand, still occurs.  Still exists.   Like my daughter's tomorrow.  And the day after.

Amazingly, God - this awesome God who exists in all possibilities - speaks to us.  Through prophets, through scripture, through circumstance and whispers.  Through the words of our children.  He lets us know that we can look forward to something.  Something exciting.  Something that's worth a countoff.  Not a countdown; we don't know when it's coming - but it will be here.  Before we know it.  And in the meantime - He gives us little gifts - every day.  We can enjoy the moments...the dates as they go by.  Like my daughter does.

Thank you, God, for the gift of days and moments.  Help me to find the joy in them;  help me to look forward with anticipation and excitement.

Again - from the Archives
Linking with Jennifer at TellHisStory, and Beth at Three Word Wednesday