My view is different these days. At least a couple of times per week, I’ll be here strapped to this monitor while it counts our baby’s heartbeats.
My nights are different these days. I sleep very little as it’s become increasingly difficult to find a comfortable position and my bladder prompts me regularly to get up.
My meals are different these days. I’m watching my sodium, drastically limiting my caffeine, and due to gestational diabetes, I’m having to monitor my sugars as well.
I’m in a different season these days, but I don’t wish it away. I don’t wish these last few weeks would hurry up and be over. Though I’m beyond excited to meet this little girl, I don’t wish for the day to be here tomorrow. I’m in desperate need of my two and three cups of coffee I used to enjoy pre-pregnancy, but I’m content forgoing it for now. Though I’d love nothing more than to bake something sweet and eat to my heart’s content, I can wait.
Because this is a season.
It’s a season, and I know from having traveled this way before how quickly the seasons change. I know from looking into the eyes of my nine-year-old firstborn, that though the nights are incredibly long, the years are so very short. I recognize as I’ve watched my baby boy grow from baby to toddler to preschooler to Kindergartner in a few blinks, how time steadily marches on. I realize from my very own reflection in the mirror how quickly the years have passed.
Seasons change—and change quickly.
So, as tempting as it sometimes is to wish for tomorrow or next week or next month or five years from now, perhaps we should remember not to dismiss the present season too quickly. Perhaps we should remember that our eager anticipation for something we’re looking forward to, will one day be a beautiful memory instead. And even our desire to move too quickly past some hard or frustrating things may leave wisdom to be gained still unearthed beneath the challenges.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens…” And then verse 11a assures us, “He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time…”
Seasons come and go…and there’s a time and place for each one. So wherever you find yourself today, take comfort in knowing that it’s a season and that God is present and at work in each and every one.