Waxing Poetic

An excerpt from my journal entry written on July 19, 2006:


Most of my life is filled with ordinary days. I love ordinary days, finding joy in the simple routines of making my bed each morning, reading with my children, joining hands around the table before dinner every night. But sometimes these sweet routines are interrupted to make room for peculiar pleasures not typically afforded by the prevailing order of things. Here is the story of one of those marvelous interruptions.

Last night, Emma had an exquisite treat as we were able to share an evening with her very special friends, Nicole and Hannah. We simply took a walk along the beach, but the memory of that evening has already become precious to me and one that will be forever captured on the canvas of my heart.

Though I brought my camera with me, the pictures are but a dim reflection of the true sense of the moment. There was life in the colors of the sunset—the cathedral of glowing red sky resplendent with floating clouds lit pink by the setting sun. The salt air, the sound of the surf, and the cry of the gulls created a certain kind of seaside serenity which made time stand still. And three childhood friends, at once little girls yet almost grown, were talking and giggling, flip-flops in hand, and tickling their toes in the gentle tide.

The splendor of creation, the wonder of childhood and the deep love of a mother’s heart all joined together on a warm July night to remind me of my Heavenly Father’s lavish grace to me. It was a pivot of kairos, time bursting forth with meaning. Though it was as ethereal as the ocean mist gathering in billows on the shoreline, I will treasure its memory forever. Bound by time and space, I am, yet in that moment, I touched the Face of eternity. Oh, I am undeserving of such richness of delight.