When I say I have been journaling for years, it’s no exaggeration. I feel like sharing a snippet from the early years about my baby son’s first steps in life. I happened to catch them on camera and later made a drawing of the glorious moment. That son is approaching his 23rd birthday in a few months but these are snippets from his first year: “Taken completely by surprise I witnessed my baby son walk his first two unsteady steps in life! What a milestone this is! Never again will any steps he takes be as important as the first ones. This marks the beginning of his autonomy. After this his milestones are a chain of events all related to his developing independence….The changes he makes are so rapid in the first year. I feel amazed by the miraculous process of life as I adoringly watch him emerge into a beautiful person, his personality revealed as his abilities increase….I have high hopes for the man he will be and I want to raise him with the love and guidance to become the best person he can be….After thinking on these things, I feel deeply connected to my eldest son, almost three years old now. I remember his wavering first steps and how excited I felt…he has grown like a wisteria vine and has a lifetime of changing yet to be experienced. How I hope I will be like a beacon that points the way to ships at night, a light that will shine and guide in all weather, at all hours, for all time. My boys will grow secure and confident knowing they will always have a safe haven to return to when life’s wave of mistakes and failures has blown them into the thrashing waters, denting their ships against the rocks….When the waters are calm and the skies blue, it is easy to see the beacon, a comfort with its constant presence and stable foundation. My love, like a beacon, is always there, sustaining my sons, guiding them as they grow….How true it is that I can easily see God as my beacon when the skies are blue and the waters calm, when my life is untroubled. How easy it is to take His presence for granted when life is great. How true it is when the storms come that I run frantically to God for help. Teach me, Lord…help me to see that in spiritual growth like a baby taking his first steps, there will be many first steps throughout life. Grant each of us the courage to keep taking those first steps.”
I didn’t know then that a year or so later a daughter would be born and I would have yet another opportunity to treasure my baby’s first steps. If you are a mother, I encourage you to capture these precious moments in words – they will be a vivid memory in ways that images alone can’t express of your childrens’ milestones. I sure missed writing down a lot of them, but the ones I got I cherish.
Snippets and Snatches 