Paths Through Life

Here I sit looking at these pages as the wind whips and blows the leaves around and the tall trees sway back and forth. It is the sign that winter has arrived, at least for the day. Stew is on the stove and warming the house with the smell and staying tucked in seems to be a good idea. 

Our lives have seasons just like the earth. We have times when we go through the days of troubles blowing and swirling around us, sometimes bending us in the coldness of life itself. We often wonder when the sun will shine again in our lives.

Sickness and death sometimes touch our families and the holidays and reunions hurt like the winds. But the sun peaks through as we can hear laughter of children playing. 

Life moves on, just as time on the clock. 

The past few weeks we have had the laughter and enjoyment of our grandchildren filling our home. They played in the field across from our house and played around in our little community. We always enjoy seeing them and having them near and did not think about the loneliness others were having around us.

After our children and grandchildren left, I must admit, my house seemed larger and quieter, but I sensed the emptiness others may have during the holidays. I begin to understand this when we received a text message from one of our neighbors expressing how he had enjoyed hearing the children playing in the field; and again as I called our 93 year old neighbor to thank her for calling our grandsons over to offer her balls and bats to them to play with, which they did. She told me she pulled a chair up to her window everyday to watch them play. She asked when would they be coming back to visit. 

We leave a path as we walk through this world. As we walk the weeds or flowers fill up the path. Eventually, when we die, the path will be covered up and our life on earth will have ended. Some paths may be longer than others, some paths may wind across the country or even the world, but they all will end at someplace. 

While we don't like loneliness or hard times in our lives, they are times for us to grow. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 , “There is a time for everything...a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”

I now look back on those few days the grandchildren were here and I am thankful they may have planted a few flowers in the paths of our neighbors as they watched and listened. Sharing joy in lives can be done, sometimes when you are not even aware. Those little children had no idea they were being watched as they played, but they put a dash of joy in those lives around our community. 

How easy would it be if we all could know we have sprinkled a little joy in the winds of someone's life? Let's all start this new year with letting the Son shine through us and spread a little joy! 

Blessings!
gs