Flipping The Blocks of Time

I got whatever bug Asherel had all week. I only felt awful most of one day though. By the evening, after lying down all day, I actually didn't feel too bad. I wasn't ready to go climb trees, but I felt like I might be able to enjoy the weekend.

I love Saturday mornings. So much anticipation of what might lie ahead. The first thing I did when I got up, after feeding the dogs who will not wait for anything else to happen before that crucial day starter, was to change the date on my little 3-d calendar. I have a calendar that is made of blocks. The months are on 3 rectangular blocks, one month on each face, and the days are on two square blocks. Putting the two square blocks together marks the double digit days. The day blocks sit on top of the month blocks. I realized that my spring and summer month blocks were all done as I flipped the fall/winter block to September and pushed the spring and summer blocks behind it. Where did this year go?

I have a paper calendar where I mark events. I even have a phone calendar, though I can never remember to put important events on it, handy as it is. But for years now, I always remember each morning to flip the little blocks of my 3d calendar that sits on the counter in the kitchen. For some reason, it gives me a more solid sense of where I am in time. It reminds me time is passing me by, and it is best to use it wisely now. Today. While I still have time. But I also like the image it gives me of eternity. Those blocks that are in the back will march forward in 4 months again. They cycle will repeat itself.

One day, I won't be turning the blocks anymore. Perhaps my daughter will carry on the tradition. I wondered as I flipped the blocks to September 1 if my family has ever noticed that I do that each morning, and have done that each morning for fifteen years now. And every first day of the month I give the dogs their heartworm pills. No one else has ever done that.I am the only one in the family that probably even thinks of it or knows of it. What will happen when I am not here to turn the blocks and give the dogs their heart worm medicine, I wondered? I thought of the little things my mother used to do each day that none of us noticed. Fill the dog's water bowl. Fill the bird feeders outside the window. Pull the weeds in the wildflower garden she had planted. Funny how I remember those little things now, but I never considered them much, if at all, when I was growing up.

So much of our lives are lived in the shadows. So much of what we do, who we are, what we think is not known. For some reason, that really struck me today as I pushed spring and summer behind fall and winter. Time marches on and all those little things we do that make up a life fade away.

Except to the One who sees all. By Him, we will be known. We have always been known. All those little things we do that make us who we are do not escape His notice. My times are in His hands, and He is flipping the blocks gently.

Psalm 39:4-7 (NIV)
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. [5] You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. [6] “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be. [7] “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.









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