A Different Kind of Labor Pain...

Dear friends married off their their youngest daughter the other day...
And right before my eyes - I witnessed it.
The closing of the chapter of childhood days forever gone in a beautiful rush of "I do's."

Weddings slay me.
They are such a mix of beauty and of pain - of letting go and of flying free.

And since motherhood is made up of childhood, there really is a painful beauty in watching those roles morph and change...of watching a different kind of labor pain take place right before your very eyes...and of watching the mother and father so beautifully open wide their hands...

....of the gift that was just on Loan in the first place...

And I am reminded once again that these days of whirling swirling chaos...
...this season of doing and doing and re-doing over and over again...
...these days of living life right down in the deep and muddy thick of it...

It's just a vapor...
Sometimes it's good to be reminded.

While the days may be long, this season is fleeting.
It is not forever.
Not by a long shot...
And I don't want to wish years away.

One day, I will blink, and that will be me - standing in front of many - watching my sons and my daughter start a brand new chapter of their lives while one of my own closes shut.

So, may I not spend these fleeting days of my children's life on fleeting things...
May they see in me - a Mama who wanted to live life large - by stooping ever lower, and by finding joy wherever...

May they read on the pages of our lives lived together a tapestry of grace...
...a list miles long of "I'm sorry's" and of "I forgive you's."
...of "I love you's," and of "I really, really like you, too!"

May they never doubt our love for them...and may the lessons that they really learn and take away be the ones that are the most important, anyway.  May God's grace cover the multitude of their Mama and their Daddy's flaws...and may they remember a rich and sacred childhood - one with Jesus woven everywhere.

May they remember my "yes's" far more than my "no's."
And may we - all together - live life loud, and full -- bold and crazy in love with each other and with Jesus!
May we slow...
Might we see....

All of that sacred that lives right in the midst of all of the crazy chaos that makes up our days...
Our beautiful days of messy and of glory....

And when all is said and done.... in those few short years down the road...
Might we be able to do what our friends did so beautifully on that night just a few evening's back....

Might we "laugh that we lived and dance that we dared and inhale that it all happened....and it all was grace."
~ Ann Voskamp