Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him…” Psalm 37: 7a

A smile broke across my face yesterday evening around dinner time as I listened to Nathan’s recounting of our younger Granddaughter Ellie Kate’s making the case for staying overnight one more time with Mimi and Gran.

Daddy, I have three reasons that I want to tell you to stay another night with Mimi and Gran. One, because I can help Mimi around the house while I’m here; two, Mimi will be able to have me for company in the morning when we wake up in case Gran has to go to somewhere; and, well, because I want to.”

That would have carried the day for me—leading to her third night in a row with us. Actually any one of those reasons, or even something like—“Gran can I stay with you and Mimi again?” would have won me over. At the end of the discussion, though, her Mommy and Daddy thought that she ought to spend the night at home because she would have a busy morning today. Ugh!

The morning yesterday, though, started similarly with a smile breaking across my face, because in that morning I made and had breakfast with Lynda and Ellie Kate, and then had the joy and privilege of watching our elder Granddaughter, Hannah, compete in a horse show.

Quite a day—being a part of the lives and activities of God’s gift of two precious Granddaughters. As I sit here with you this morning reflecting on the occasions of yesterday, I find myself reminded of their Mimi’s comment when she held Hannah in her arms over twelve years ago for the very first time just hours after she was born—“She took my breath away!”

And in every moment of every day since, with their presence and lingering recollections of moments from their visits, Hannah and Ellie Kate have quietly marked our lives with sacred memories imprinted on the pages of our hearts.

Simply put—they stop our world.

We all have people and things like that in our lives. People and moments which God has placed there to add a bit of the eternal into what are at times overwhelming moments of the everyday. Where we stop—or are stopped—and catch a glimpse into a quieter place, a holier place, where the transient activities, problems and uncertainties of the day—which seem to occupy our every waking moment—are replaced with the eternal, and with a glimpse into what Heaven will be like. Where we are given a glimpse into a quieter place, a still place, where the heartaches of yesterday and the hurdles we tend to see in today, are replaced with all the possibilities in today and all the hopes for tomorrow. It happens when we stop and embrace the people and moments like those which were there for us yesterday.

And when we are privileged to catch a glimpse of moments like those, something wonderful happens. They stop our world. All of the busyness and preoccupation with the unimportant things, which keeps us way too busy, falls aside, as today replaces someday, and the blessings of now replace all of my planning for tomorrow. Moments like that amidst the relationships God places within our lives—stop our world. Moments like that should cause us to become very still before them and, as I am doing now, to remember and learn from the imprints they leave on our lives.

For me and for Mimi, our two Granddaughters simply stop our world, whether it’s Hannah’s soft, lyrical voice and gentle smile considering something new she can try, or Ellie Kate’s full-faced smile with fully-wrinkled nose thinking of the next adventure before her. They open our hearts and still the static which often creeps into in our souls, while slowing our pace. God intended for that to happen when He sent them to us.

In her book “Gift from the Sea,” Anne Morrow Lindbergh suggests that “an end toward which we could strive–to be the still axis within the revolving wheel of relationships, obligations and activities.” That still axis is that quiet center of our lives where we begin to focus on the eternal moments of today, as our world continues to spin all around us presumably heading toward tomorrow. It’s that quiet center where stillness replaces busyness and priorities align in a God-ordained order.

Yesterday that happened for us. It needs to happen for all of us, every day.

Embrace those people and moments around you where your life will be marked by sacred memories, where your world is stopped to reflect upon the eternal, the important, and the God who is over it all.

For Lynda and me there are many—but our Granddaughters do it every time.

They simply stop our world.

Thank God. Really! Thank God.

In His Name—Scott

Copyright 2012. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.