It happened- I knew it would eventually.
My daughter turned twenty years old this week.
And I’m somewhat in denial!
Time is most certainly running amuck these days, and I’m dragging my heels trying to slow it all down. How can it be possible that in the blink of an eye, my precious pink princess has traded her Barbies for third year University textbooks? She’s now a grown, beautiful, intelligent woman! And I’m an incredibly proud mommy, watching in awe as she follows her dreams.
Thankfully, she still loves pink, and I baked a very pink strawberry birthday cake for her. I have to say; this is now my absolute fave cake- even better than chocolate. Yes, you heard me right- the chocoholic is changing her stripes! It goes without saying that this cake HAS to be topped with copious hunks of dark chocolate, but here it is. Thank you, yet AGAIN Pinterest…
So, of course, I’ve been a wee bit nostalgic this week, thinking back over the past twenty years. How we packed our little girl up at the age of two, and left the U.K. to seek adventure in the wild land of Canada. How I homeschooled her up to high school, watched numerous ballet recitals, told her she couldn’t have a horse, and then wept as I left her in Montreal to begin her degree. It all happened that quickly!
I remember myself at the age of twenty. Oh my word- I got married the day after my 20th birthday! (It was way different back in the old days!) I thought I had life pretty much mapped out. I was married to my high school sweetheart, dreaming and deciding which country would be cool to live in, planning our future with sheer glee and excitement. We had youth, optimism, energy, health, our faith and each other… we were unstoppable!
I had twenty-twenty vision through rose-colored glasses!
Needless to say, we had several reality checks, and changed our course in life several times to roll with the punches, but I have no regrets. Maturity causes you to nod and say, “Yep, we thought we knew best back then, but God had other plans for us. Better plans.”
I have been fortunate enough to have actual twenty-twenty vision right up until a couple of years ago (I’m not quite needing glasses for reading YET, although I’ve given up trying to decipher directions on the sides of medicine bottles!) But even in my clarity of sight, I have failed along the way to see all the important stuff. I often see only what I WANT to see. I choose to ignore what makes me sad or uncomfortable. And the countless times I have totally missed out on seeing God! His love, His plan, His encouragement.
“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
It’s tricky business, trying to gain perspective on life, especially when we’re in the thick of it. When we hold things or even people too closely, we can’t see beyond and appreciate the picture in its entirety.
One day we’ll “know fully” and see clearly with twenty-twenty vision. When we see God face to face, we’ll comprehend the magnitude of His love, and the depth of His wisdom for our lives. In the meantime, with our poor eyesight, we learn to trust in the One who sees all and knows all.
For me, this means embracing the changing seasons of motherhood and cheering on my offspring, as they look at life with their own youthful twenty-twenty. Hopefully, I’ll add some clarity when the view gets murky, and encourage them to always keep things in perspective.
And sooner or later, I guess I’ll have to give in and invest in some funky reading glasses of my own. With eternally optimistic rose-colored lenses, because that’s just the way I roll!
