His Dogness

This is Garnet talking:

When Sparkle Girl was born 9 years ago, I carried her in my arms 23 hours out of every 24-hour day. Whether I was cooking, painting, walking or sleeping, her downy head would be bobbing beside mine.

Going on four years later, Doobins came along. He just turned 6, and, the other night, he fell asleep in my arms. It was all I could do to lift him and carry him into his bed. I’m realizing my babies are simply too big to carry.

I can’t account for the time it took for that to happen. I hope I invested it well now that they walk themselves to bed.

I was standing at my studio door watching yellow leaves falling down and covering a patch of dirt where Sparkle Girl had carefully buried six holly berries. She made beautiful markers to indicate which ones will come up as roses, which will bloom as tulips and where the pansies will pop up.

This is a precious time.

Doobins crawled up into my lap the other morning for the sole purpose of looking me in the face. I put my finger in the middle of his chest and said, “Does Jesus live in your heart, my boy?”

He laughed and said, “Yes, Momma, and God does, too.”

I felt like a vessel not big enough to hold what was being poured into it.

Kim and I are both very aware that these are precious days – that our family’s hours together are pure gold and delivered directly from God Himself.

Imagining that it was possibly the last time that I would carry my boy into bed has been one of those blazing moments for me. It makes me sad, and, at the same time, I’m flooded with thanksgiving. I’ve been given a few moments to invest and to receive from two amazing children.

My biggest prayer is that God will walk beside them every step their little feet take their whole lives – that He will be as real to them as the blankets on their beds. I hope that, when they look back on these times, they will find them beautiful and filled with love.

I may not be able to carry them anymore but I can still chase them around and have a good throw-down, tickle-screaming, face-kissing minute or two.