First Church of God

We went to see our families over the Thanksgiving holiday.  My parents live in the South and their home is surrounded by very large trees with a pond, a small creek, and lots of room to run and play.  One year my Dad decided he would rake the leaves from all over their property into one big pile, and save it for the kids to play in when we came to their house for Thanksgiving.  My sister has two girls, and we have two boys.  So, year after year the one thing they look forward to is the leaf pile!  The really cool thing is that one year they discovered that as the leaves settled they became so packed together that you could actually dig tunnels through them. They would use sticks to prop up the tunnels, cardboard boxes at the entrances covered in leaves of course, and what resulted was “The Leaf Fort”! This is a picture of the “Leaf Fort” from this year and the four head engineers…Caleb, Maddy, Jacob, and baby Eden! 

We are truly blessed as a family!  This Thanksgiving we laughed as Caleb danced with Grandma in the Kitchen, cried as we stood by the hospital bed of my other grandmother that we affectionately call “Memommie”, and we played in the leaves in the warm fall sunshine!   Moments like this come and go all too quickly. It seems like just yesterday that Memommie was standing at the stove fussing with Granddaddy about the fact that we were having Thanksgiving dinner on paper plates, never mind there were about 50 of us there!  And, only a few minutes ago it seems the kids were in diapers…and bottles and Gerber were a part of the Thanksgiving menu.  Where does the time go? There is an old song that goes like this:

“Time In A Bottle” by Jim Croce

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that Id 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
Id save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you…

Even though time cannot be kept in a bottle and days will not last forever, God gives us the ability to treasure the moments as they come.  The question is always, do we take the time to stop and relish in what God has given us?  In Psalm 103:1-5 it says: “Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my in most being, praise his holy name.  Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”  God has given us good things!  Today, take a moment and write down some of the good things God has given you, spend some time thanking Him for these things in prayer, and then send in a comment and let the rest of us know what moments you would save in a bottle!