T is for Time

Adessa on Father's Day 2010, at the riverfront park in East Moline.

T is for Time -- the most precious resource we have in this life.  Pastor Curtis preached, in part, on this today, and how at the many funerals he has presided over he has seen few bosses in attendance -- but almost always children and grandchildren are there mourning.

Another Father's Day 2010 pic -- Adessa and me at church that morning

He was speaking, of course, of making time for our children, even when the demands of life seem to make that impossible.  The demands of life seem urgent and so important -- but, in hindsight, we seldom wish we'd spent more time at work and instead wish we had more time with our loved ones.

On her favorite "cowboy swing" at the park

My time with Adessa was precious to me and I have written at length about our time together on this blog.  There are no memories I cherish more than those.  I miss them dearly.  I pray every day for Adessa and pray also for restoration that our time together would not just be past tense, but present as well.  I trust the Lord will restore and take heart this verse found in Joel, "I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten..."  There are few thoughts to me as inspiring as that.  How God can restore lost time I don't understand -- time can never be replaced -- but I've also come to realize there a great many things I just can't comprehend and yet God is capable of doing more than I can even imagine.

 

The fearsome tiger roars!

Today is Father's Day and I have thought of Adessa often today.  I think back to two years ago, Father's Day 2010 -- it at once feels like it was yesterday and also like another lifetime.  The Lord has blessed me with so much since then and yet there is an empty place where Adessa should be.  All that time with her missed and gone forever, never to be replaced... and yet: God does promise to restore it.  And God isn't promising to replace the material things the locusts have eaten, but the very time they devoured.  I don't understand it, but I believe it.  And I look forward with a hopeful heart to the day when that promise is manifest.