growing up

So you know when you have those times in your life that you are so busy and you are going and going and going and going, hardly have time to slow down and see the world around you. You actually end up running so quickly through life that it seems you lap the rotation of the earth. When all of a sudden.......you stop! And you look around and life just seems so peaceful around you. Birds are still chirping like they always use to, the wind is still a simple breeze across your skin like it always was, the new spring leaves have come in as usual. But you have changed. You don't know how, or why....but you have. The world doesn't seem the same and yet it is. All those things that you remember are still continuing on in their path and in their ways, but something has changed. It is you. Not for the bad necessarily, just changed.

Maybe you've grown a little taller, but that doesn't seem possible when you haven't grown an inch since the sixth grade. Maybe the world has gotten a little shorter, but no, that is not possible either. Has the moon shown it's dark side? Has the sun begun rising in the west? Has the grass gone blue and sky gone green? Has everything you've ever known changed? Or simply, have you just grown?

Not in stature or beauty or strength or knowledge or even in talents. You've grown in familiarity of Christ's grace. You've grown in the understanding of His love. But most of all you've grown in the desire of His overwhelming peace and comfort. And you've come to realize that though this world is your home it is not your resting place. And though you cannot have grown taller or the world have gotten shorter, you have become just that much closer to heaven and the eternity we now live for.