A Space for Grace

Ahhh . . . one of my most favourite days of the year.  Summer’s promise beckons as the shackles of the school year fall away.  I roll into the parking lot 15 minutes late, children munching happily on Tim Horton’s due to a lack of critical breakfast ingredients in the fridge, yet calm prevails.  It is the last day of school.  Cards and gifts for the teachers are in hand, and truthfully, today, I don’t think anyone is expected to be on time.  (Or so I tell myself).

This is the day we exchange late night craft runs to supplement projects due in mere hours, for late night campfires.  Today we emerge from under the yoke of imposed schedule and routine, and have the freedom to establish these for ourselves.  No more wiling away the hours on assignments with deadlines; we shall immerse ourselves in spontaneous ideas, blissfully unaware of where they will lead.

Summer means that instead of frantic texts to friends in an attempt to ascertain what is going on at school, when it is happening and whether or not I need to be there, we exchange casual texts around the subject of afternoons on the beach or evening roasts around a fire. (To those of you who helped carry me through the year, a heart-felt thank you!)

On this day, we say adieu to the crazy lady with curls in wild disarray careening down city streets in a desperate attempt to beat the bell, and welcome the relaxed easy-going Mom who is coming into her element.  This is the day school clothes disappear from the laundry pile, and children romp through the forest in their “acreage clothes.”  (Yes, if you drop in unexpectedly my children will look like street urchins, but we are okay with that.)  I may struggle to keep all the balls in the air between September and June, but these two months are my time to shine.

I believe God has a wonderful sense of humour, and today I stumbled across an aptly timed verse in my reading.  “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven . . . a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)  For my teacher friends, you can relax, I will not actively uproot any of your work.  (Though by September it may seem that attempts to do so were made.)  While there has been much good planting these past ten months, I am excited about the opportunity to do more planting of my own in the coming days.

Ultimately the goal of my planting is this: that when the end of the matter is heard, the message that will have taken root most deeply is that what God does endures forever, (Ecc 3:14) and the whole of our duty is to fear God and keep His commandments. (Ecc 12:13)

This summer I wish for you a time of planting and building up; a time to seek and a time to gather.  He makes all things beautiful in its time.

DISCLAIMER: Should there appear a post on this blog towards the end of August heralding the joys of back to school, do not be surprised.  There is indeed a time and season for everything under heaven! 🙂