I’ve been married now for well over a decade, and in those short years, our family has blossomed. My husband and I discussed all pertinent issues relating to marriage and family during our engagement, including family size. We both agreed that the Master Creator had a better handle on our future than we did, so we chose to allow Him to design our family.
Now, thirteen years later, we are the blessed parents of five amazing children, the youngest of whom is three. In these fruitful years I have changed over 15,000 diapers and that number is still growing. The precocious three year-old is now in underwear, except at night, so the diapering is substantially less than it once was and to be honest, diaper changing is not something I will miss. But as I approach a new season likely absent of babies, there are many, many things I will miss.
I will miss the way those precious eyes look up at me with awe and admiration. I will miss the tiny fingers that once clasped my finger so tightly. I’ll miss those sloppy wet kisses often laced with stickiness. I’ll miss the first steps, the first words, and the astonished expressions of new discoveries. My growing children are invaluable gifts and though I’m enjoying them as they mature, infants and toddlers bring a magic into our lives that is often too fleeting.
I remember years ago rocking one of my darling infants, mourning the passing of time, knowing that this one too would grow rapidly and these sweet baby minutes would be lost forever. I’m sure my hormones made the moment more sorrowful, but as tears streamed down my face, I heard the loving voice of my Lord. He said, “All that is not quite enough in this life will be more than enough in the next.”
That statement changed the way I view time forever.Every time that longing overwhelms me, that longing for more, the longing for lasting beauty, I remember His words. He has set eternity in our hearts and no matter how beautiful our experiences are, they will never be quite enough in this life.
The Word tells us that He stores our tears in a bottle. We are so precious to Him and I am convinced that if He stores our tears, He also stores our laughter, our precious moments, all the beauty and pleasure we experience in this temporal life. What if the great desire to scrapbook comes from Divinity? What if He too keeps a scrapbook of each of our lives? What if He one day invites us to thumb through the pages?
It’s possible that God may offer us the opportunity to relive every incredible moment of this life in the fullness of time, absent of the stain of sin and earthly limitations. Imagine how sweet that would be! He tells us that at His right hand are pleasures forevermore, so our earthly experiences, even the best of them, will pale in comparison to what He has in store for us in Heaven.
So in those moments when all in this life is “not quite enough” know that one day—one day, and then for eternity—all will be “more than enough.”
I am so thankful for Jesus—His death, resurrection, and ascension—and the everlasting life (“the more than enough”) He makes available to us.