August 21, 2020
Sand in a Glass
We were making sand art at summer camp yesterday. As I was pouring different color sands into tiny cute plastic critters and shapes for the cute crew of younglings we call campers, one said, “I want red like in The Wizard of Oz.”
I didn’t remember the red sand in the hourglass that the wicked witch sets up for Dorothy.
Instantly I thought of time slowly falling through a tiny hole like the red sands dropping from my spoon into the funnel to fill the little dinosaur.
Time does just slip away.
So many times we say, “later,” or “when this is finished,” or “maybe next time,” or “when I’m not so busy.”
But I’ve learned that if it’s something I want to do, I need to do it now. As soon as possible. Before the person I want to do it with moves away, grows up, changes schools, changes jobs, etc. I’ve learned to live life in the now. That doesn’t mean I don’t plan for the future and have goals. It means that when it comes to relationships, I always choose now over later.
When someone is gone, it is too late.
You never want to live with regret.
We used to measure time with sand in a glass. Hourglass. That’s an old concept for most of us. I mean, really, how many of us have even seen an hourglass unless we happen to be a fan of “The Wizard of Oz” or play games like Scrabble, Boggle, or Guesstures? It isn’t just a 3-minute timer (it is in the aforementioned games). An hourglass historically was used as a reliable measure of time. It was flipped every time the last grain of sand slid into the bottom and someone yelled out the new hour. On ships, at military forts, etc.
That is how life was measured.
Now we have digital everything and except for a few traditionalists like me, constantly glancing at a timepiece on my wrist governed by fancy cogs, we seldom know how to read that analog device sitting somewhere in the distance. We certainly don’t depend on the flipping of an odd shaped sand-filled bottle.
Our life on Earth is like that hourglass though.
We have so many grains of sand before they run out.
Those few seconds of distraction were enough to finish my spoon of red sands into the plastic reptile. “What color now?” I ask. She picks blue, dark sparkly blue, and I ask, “a little or a lot?”
As I pour a little line of dark sparkly blue, I think, “and God fills our life with different layers or seasons.”
Yellow and dark sparkly purple follow with “all the rest” a black that looks like someone shredded a jet stone.
I think of how we are blessed with so many seasons of time with those we love. Some long – some short – some impact our lives just for a day. Each season of life we spend with each other is like a different layer in sand art; unique and special. Something to enjoy. Something to treasure.
I pray that I take time to treasure each relationship I have and those that will come.
One of the campers is swinging his sand art furiously – “mine’s all rainbowed!” He had a perfectly lined rainbow; red, two orange tones, yellow, two green tones, blue, indigo, violet, lavender, and black at the top. Now it is a fusion of color that looks like gray muck with spots of brilliance.
Wow. My writer’s brain goes into overdrive with that one. Bright spots in the mundane. This is what time spent in relationship is. For instance: we spent 3 days at a winter getaway with my family once and talking to my kids you would think it was an entire 3-month winter season! Those memories together is a bright spot in the normalcy of life that they bring out fondly whenever they please.
Thank you, Jesus. Help me to treasure today, build relationships that last, and make memories for tomorrow.
Type at you next time,
~Nancy Tart
