a time for every purpose

Two Fridays ago I was visiting with my wise friend Allison, who has been my friend through Brownies, swimming lessons, learning to make fudge (and chicken parmesan!), thinking Elijah Wood was a really cool guy (we never descended to having celebrity crushes . . . no, not us; we are -- and were -- much too levelheaded), and too many other things to list.

Even though we are just about the same age, we are now in two very different seasons of life, as Ally has grown in wisdom through the experience of three years of marriage and now motherhood to two precious little ones.

While we were visiting we talked about seasons of life and fully enjoying the special gifts that God gives in each season (and taking time to learn the lessons given in each) without missing out on that season by looking forward or back.

So many times I want to skip ahead -- to know in advance the pains I will experience and to have a preview of the joys. And in a season of peace and preparation I chafe against the peace and complain that the preparation is monotony.

About the same time I visited with Ally I was thinking about Psalm 23 and valleys (and stealing phrases from Charles Williams). And I came up with a kind of paraphrase in meditation:

Deep wealthy valleys wait
Where I with rod and staff will take you.
To leap from peak to peak --
To miss the quiet of the still water --
To feed not on the humble grass of the pasture --
Would be not to hasten delight
But to rob it of its depth.

HE is good!