It took me awhile to find my old albums. They were stuffed in the bottom drawer of the desk I hate and would love to toss out the door. As I counted the pages, I found that I had only filled it part way. The very last photo was one from when I was still in high school. There's me and my two cousins Alex and Vicki. Nostalgia crept over me and a deep sense of the swift passage of time. This photo is of these two girls when they are 6 or 7. I wonder at this lost moment in time captured in front of my parents house. It reminds me of things lost. The picture was taken in front of my Mamaw and Papaw's house. But my Mamaw died 5 years ago and that house stands empty since Papaw lives in his new wife's house. This was before their lives were broken by the divorce of their parents. They still seems so fresh and new like the rare white snowscape in the picture. And from the past time goes rushing forward. I remember the summer I stayed with them in Texas for a month while their parents were divorcing. Time skips forward again and I am at my wedding and they are half grown beauties helping at the door. Then, come the summer visits filled with laughter and annoyances. I feel time screech to halt in the present. In a few short months, Alex will be 18. Vicki is already 16. Almost grown, there is still so much life ahead of them.
Questions fill me up. Do they still have the same wonder and joy as they did when the photo was taken? Do they still have big dreams for their futures? Have they forgotten the love and compassion that filled them for animals when they were kids? Or has that spark of life that once so filled them been burn out by the world?
And most of all I am filled with love. Love for them and hope for them. And consumed by my ever present prayer, Father, move in their hearts. Teach them your love. Heal their brokenness. Hold them when I can't.
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