How Far is Fifteen Minutes?

Posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 11:32 am

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15 minutes doesn’t seem so far away.  It’s a short drive, one that can be made every day and one that is much shorter than my own daily commute, yet now it seems to me to be worlds away.
That is how far both Charity and Josiah live now that they both are in college.  It was tough helping Charity move out three years ago when she moved out but I knew that she would be home pretty often.  I have been forced to realize that the times have become less and less often and now that she will graduate next year I expect that she may really “move out” for good one day.
Just two days ago Josiah moved out as well.  I couldn’t help but remember the cool day in Chicago when he went to kindergarten for the first time; how that we thought that the bus wasn’t coming and Cindy drove him to school only to realize that we just hadn’t waited long enough.  I couldn’t drive him because I didn’t want a group of five year olds to see a grown man cry.
It just doesn’t seem that long ago.  Where did those thirteen years between kindergarten and graduation go?  They seem to have slid by like a river moving fast and quiet, yet so smoothly that you don’t notice how much is really going past.  Now the river has taken him fifteen minutes away. Fifteen minutes and thirteen years and the river moves on for both of us.
I never thought that I would feel so bad about not hearing drums when I was trying to read, or not having the dog thrown on me while I was asleep, or not being able to hear the TV because of uproarious laughter many times at my expense.  Fifteen minutes is a long way when it signals a life change.
As far as fifteen minutes seems now, I must realize that this is a real turning point.  That both of my children are now entering into another phase of life in which I will be able to protect them even less from the dangers of the world and the darts of the evil one.  And so I must ask the Lord to send his protection fifteen minutes away. I must hope that the choices that Charity and Josiah make are wise ones, better ones than I made at their age. Most of all I must remember that real security comes not from me, whether I am fifteen seconds, fifteen minutes, or fifteen hours away.  Real security comes from the Lord who reminds us in Psalm 20 that Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God.