Manna and Memories -Renee Wallace
As our family heads into another school
transition this week, with Andrew starting middle school, I
was remembering our last big school transition that happened 4 years ago
when Meredith started 1st grade. Today I found some thoughts that I’d
written then, and decided that I’d share them with you...as I am sure they
express some sentiments that some some of you might be experiencing
this week as well...
This morning was the first day of my
youngest child's first grade year. It was the first time that everyone got on
the bus at 8:00 in the morning and didn't come home until 3:30. It was one of
those iconic days. You know, the kind you want to save forever. The kind of day
you know will never happen again and so you take pictures and videos and
scrapbook about it. You know the kind of day I'm talking about. You might have
had a day like that of your own this week.
As moms, we get so sad. Our babies are
growing up. They're never going to be so young and innocent again. We just want
to hold on to them. We want to keep them sweet and safe and protected forever.
It makes me think about the manna and the
quail.
Do you remember the story about the manna
and the quail?
God's people were wandering in the desert
after escaping from Egypt, and they were starving. They needed food...NOW. So
God sent them manna and quail. Manna was this sweet, wild, dewy, bready sort of
stuff. They found it on the ground in the morning. No one quite knew where it
came from. And after it was on the ground for a little while, it disappeared.
The quail flew into the camp every evening and flew away just as quickly. The
people were told that they were supposed to take the manna and the quail that
they needed just for that day. They weren't supposed to take extra for the next
day, because God would provide more when the next day came.
Of course, some people didn't trust that
God would provide extra. So they got their jars and when no one was looking
they stuffed extra manna in them and hid them away.
It seemed like a good plan. But it didn't
work that way. When they opened their jars later, they were full of maggots and
nastiness.
It didn't work when they tried to save
God's good gifts for another day.
And I was thinking how sometimes our kids
are like our manna. They are these sweet little mysterious blessings that God
has sent into our lives, and we just want to bottle them up and save them the
way they are forever.
But it doesn't work that way, does it? No
matter how many pictures we take, and no matter how many videos we post on
Facebook, our kids are still going to get on that school bus the first day of
school. And no matter how much we wish they wouldn't grow up, they still do.
And when we do try to save them and
protect them and shield them too much, we really just stifle them...we keep
them from spreading their wings and soaring.
Our kids are like the food in the
desert...sweet and wild, and no matter what we do, we can't save them.
But here's the thing about the manna. It
was new and sweet Every Morning.
Every Morning God provided fresh manna.
Every Evening he provided fresh quail.
And Everyday God provides fresh memories
for us and our children.
Sure the kids grow taller. Sure the
homework gets harder. Sure building blocks are replaced with skateboards and
makeup. But the best years of their lives aren't over. And the best years of
our lives aren't over either. Yes, things change, but that doesn't mean that
all the good is gone. It just means that new good things are going to happen
tomorrow. It just means that God is about to provide new memories for us and
our kids.
New manna. New memories. We can't save
them. But we can enjoy the taste of the moment. And we can rest in faith that
God will give us more of the good stuff tomorrow. It might be different, but it
will be sweet, and it will be wild, and it will be good.
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