Magical Moments

I wrote this article when my daughter was 4. Now she is 7--there are still magical moments, but I'm so glad I captured these at age 4!



“Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beauti-
ful, but because they are fleeting.”
Richard Paul Evans The Gift


Recently, I've had moments where I have felt overwhelmed with the sense of how temporary our time as mother of a small child is. It is an intense time period where days can seem endless, yet seasons pass quickly. I think being a mother has brought me closer to God. It has helped me to understand the immense sacrifice of a Son. Some days it has brought me down on my knees asking Jesus to help me get through the day. But most of all, motherhood has reminded me of the wonder of God's creation through a child's eyes.

My daughter is four now, and some days it's hard to fathom where babyhood and toddlerhood went. I must say, that four is a favorite age for me (though I'm sure I've said that about another age too!). The imagination and wonder she brings to ordinary days is magical--the drawings and letters she leaves for me in the freezer because it's her "pretend mailbox"...the sincere words I hear her say at night as she talks to Jesus...the way she has me bow down before I go out for the evening so she can put a pretend crown on my head and exclaim "Mommy, you look so beautiful!"...the tinkling sound of her laughter that I wish I could bottle. I don't want to sound too idealistic-- there are also the days where she decides to carry her cup of chocolate milk into the living room--thus the nice brown stain now on my off-white carpet. And the time she had a temper tantrum in Target (not one of my finest mommy moments), and a woman with an infant looked at me like the most horrific mother on earth (and I wanted to scream, "Just wait--those cute little things grow up!"). But overall, it's the fleeting sense of this magical time God has blessed us with that overwhelms me.

I watch my daughter still cling to me, watching everything I do, but then I also see her fiercely seeking independence from me. I can almost see the struggle on her face some days as she is trying to reconcile these two extremes. Right now, I am the person she wants to be with more than anyone else on earth. But I know that pretty soon, I won't be the center of her world anymore--as it should be. But gee, when you've spent four years completely consumed in the growth and needs of your child, the thought of watching her grow away from you is hard. I am keenly aware of how quickly this all will pass, and I will wonder how my little girl grew up so fast. The plethora of pink and princess items strewn throughout the house will be gone...the animal rescue adventures over...that beautiful, tinkling sound of laughter a memory. And maybe the baby doll she totes around will one day be real, and I can do all of this again through the eyes of a grandmother. But for today, I just want to savor every moment, so I can keep all those memories in my heart and enjoy the phenomenal person she'll grow up to be.