Plenty of Time

Me, trying to decide on a topic for my column: "Jonah, how has God made a difference in your life this week?"

Pragmatic nine-year-old son, after a moment's thought: "Well, it's only the second day of the week...He still has time."

That kid cracks me up.  I can't figure out when he went from the Trying to be Funny but Not Succeeding stage to this child who is legitimately witty, making me giggle on a regular basis.

Then again, it's no wonder I haven't noticed the change in him.  He's a third child.

Anyone else out there have three kids?  With your first, you try to get it all right.  Oh my gosh, the stack of baby books that I read with a glazed-eyed fervor...I haaaated those books.  They had so many RULES to follow, and they always told me all the things I was doing wrong!

Nevertheless, that sonnyboy of mine sure got the attention as I tried my best to be The Most Awesome Mom Ever.  I filled in baby books.  I took pictures.  I videotaped his first word.  (It was "bus," by the way.)  I read him three stories every night, doing all the voices. I carefully filled his new Bob the Builder lunch box with with a sandwich cut into a fun shape and a special hand-written note every day, so he could know how special he was to me.

The second child gets to escape a lot of the mistakes you made the first time around. But there's a little less time for number two. I have a few snapshots of my middle-child daughter's enormous little-girl grin, but I couldn't tell you her first word.  She got pre-packaged chips and fruit cups in her hand-me-down lunch box with the occasional note scrawled on a napkin reminding her to bring home her snowpants. And she never learned by heart the words to Goodnight Moon.

And then comes number three.  Our third arrived several years after his sister, when the older two were already off and running.  Jonah was relegated to accessory status, carted on my hip to preschool field trips and little league games.  I think maybe his big brother read him stories sometimes, and surely we have a picture of him around somewhere. And lunches?  Forgot the lunchbox. The third kid gets hot lunch. Even on hot dog day.

Since then, life has gotten ever busier.  Band practice, driving lessons, orthodontist visits . . . life revolves around the big ones.  And, as always, Jonah tags along for the ride, going wherever we go because he doesn't have a choice.

He's a part of our family life, but he's always on the fringes of it.  It's not that I forget about him.  It's just that I sort of . . . forget.  About him. Sometimes.

Jonah is pretty awesome about understanding his third-child role.  Really, he's amazing. Never complaining about being the little one, he keeps his head up, accepts what he's given, and waits in unhurried expectation for whatever good might be coming his way.

But still.  I wish I had done better.

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It's only the second day of the week. God still has time. It was said so simply, but with such confidence. My boy didn't have any big, exciting God-sightings to report.  But he believed, no matter how unremarkable the present might be, that there was something special in store for him. And he was okay with waiting for it.

How has God made a difference in our lives?  I really like Jonah's way of looking at it.  There's still time.

It makes me think of being a not-always-great mom. And it reminds me that my kids will wait cheerfully and patiently while God keeps nudging me toward getting it right.

It makes me think of how God will keep working in my life to help me smooth out my rough spots and become more like Him.

Simplicity and acceptance and peace.  Because the only thing that really matters, the Thing that makes all the difference in the world, has already been taken care of.  The cross has given us eternity. As for the rest - well, God can handle that.  He's got it under control.

That fourth-grader reply was so simple.  I almost corrected him.  I almost reminded him about how God is a part of every moment of our lives in so many little ways, and there is never a day without Him.  But in that moment it was so much more fun to laugh, enjoy my boy, and let my heart send up a thank You for this week's life lesson.

A little shrug, a little head tilt - everything's not the way it seems it should be?  Eh.  It's early.  God still has time.

First published in The Alpena News, September 19, 2015.