He's got the Whole World...In His Hands...

I hurried into the library to return a long overdue book. As I laid the book on the counter and turned to leave I was arrested by this month's featured display in the curio cabinet. It was of several different types of globes. There at the top was a small globe bank identical to the one I had as a child. I often wondered, out of all the toys I had, what happened to this one?
When I was a child it meant little to me. Just one toy among many. It wasn't until I was grown and it was long gone that I became attached to it.
I must have been about eight years old. I don't know why I was looking for it. I remember walking all around our suburban ranch style house looking here, looking there. I checked all the usual places, in the toybox, under the bed but it was nowhere to be found. Suddenly the solution came to me. I knew exactly what I should do in this situation. I stopped walking and right in the middle of the hall I closed my eight year old eyes and prayed. "Jesus, will you please help me find my piggybank". I stood there for a minute longer and then a picture came to my mind of where it was. I "saw it" under my dad's overstuffed naugahide chair in the living room. Without wasting another minute I walked straight over to the chair, bent down and retrieved the piggybank . I said a quick "thank you" under my breath and went on about the business of being a kid. There was no noise, no fanfare, nothing that would tell me I had just embarked on the journey of a lifetime with the One who had created me, although I'm sure the angels in Heaven must have been making a deafening racket in their delirium of joy.
It would be another year or so before I would kneel with my Auntie on the orange shag carpet (with hands folded on the shiny yellow vinyl couch) in her house and ask Jesus to "come into my heart" and another year or so after that before I realized the significance of that prayer. When I finally came to that realization my whole life turned upside down. Or should I say my upside down world suddenly turned right side up, just like that little globe when I was through shaking all of the pennies out of it.

Time Flying by and Monkeys Escaping the Barrel

I ignored the alarm going off in my ear and snuggled deeper in the covers, but I was awake. First day of school. Back to the regular routine of early wake ups, making lunches and heading out in the early morning to face the day.
I reached for my cell phone and called my son to wake him up in the next room. (Hey no use letting all that technology go to waste.) I then called my daughter downstairs but she didn't answer so I reluctantly climbed out of bed and shuffled my way downstairs to her room. The usual routine was definitely under way, it seemed.
I stopped by my youngest daughter's room to awaken her and then headed back to the kitchen to start the morning lunch making process. Lunch boxes out. Baggies out. Chips, cookies, bread, ham, cheese, mustard, juice, ditto.
By the time I had the lunches assembled the older kids were already dressed and their friends were  showing up at the door. I took a moment to get myself dressed and grabbed my camera for those all too important back to school shots .
The older kids were horsing around on the front porch, unusual for them to get along so well, but this morning they had something in common. They were both going to be in high school this year and they were heading out early so the junior could give the freshman a tour of the campus before it all started.
I finished the shots and headed back in to make sure my youngest was actually out of bed. She was alert and ready to go. Her backpack had been ready and clothes had been picked out for two days. She grabbed a breakfast bar and I helped her with her hair and then she too was on the porch for the snapshots. We got in the car and headed out for school which was only a few blocks away. As she exited the vehicle I leaned out the window and got one last shot of her entering the building for her first day of sixth grade.
I came back home and entered the very quiet house. There was no sound. No slamming doors, no running feet, no loud voices. No M-O-O-OMMM!(s) no MO-ther!(s) no Hey, momsies? Just the hum of the fridge and the sound of the garbage man grinding his gears as he rode past the house.
I stood looking out the kitchen window at the still bright summer sky and thinking about how fast things change. Before I am ready for it the leaves will be turning and dropping off the trees and another winter will be upon us. Before I am ready for it my kids will be grown and gone and setting out on their own adventures leaving me with only 4x6 snaps to remember this day.
I turned away from the window to head up to my room. As I looked down on the floor I spied two red monkeys that escaped from the barrel and ended up on the kitchen floor. I smiled as I went on my way. Escaping TOYS. Maybe time isn't moving so fast, after all.