I can’t believe I’m using the words “charming” and “commercial” in the same phrase, but recently I’ve noticed a TV commercial for a brand of automobile emphasizing the long-lasting nature of these vehicles. It opens with a shot of a car sitting in the driveway and a dad cleaning out the back seat. He turns with a pink crayon in his hand, and in his mind’s eye, a little girl runs across the lawn, laughing back at him. Next he pulls out a plastic hospital bracelet, turns, and sees an older version of his daughter on crutches, with a cast on her leg, heading toward the house, sending a smile over her shoulder. Lastly, he picks up a bedraggled corsage, and there is his no-longer-little girl in a pretty dress, dancing under the stars with a young man. A simple, folky-sounding song takes the place of any dialogue, repeating the phrase, “turn around . . .”
Finally, the same car is packed up and sitting in the driveway, the college-bound daughter ready to leave home, as her dad hands her the keys. Everyone is happy and smiling, but there’s the unspoken awareness that time has flown, and every time he’s looked away and then turned back, she’s grown up a little more.
Whether you’ve been the parent launching your youngsters off on their own, or the young people heading out into the adult world, these little vignettes of a growing and changing family are illustrations to which most of us relate.
The old song of “Turn, Turn, Turn” in which the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 make up most of the lyrics, came to my mind: “To everything (turn, turn) there is a season (turn, turn) and a time for every purpose under heaven.” The “times” to be born and to die, to weep and to laugh, to mourn, and to dance, are only a few life experiences described. Universal and timeless, these words give us the assurance that God is with us at all times and in all circumstances throughout our lives. Whether those times are filled with joys or sorrows, challenges or blessings, his unfailing, unchanging love will guide us and bear us up.
“I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him.”
– Ecclesiastes 3:14
Your friend in Christ,
Mary Rogers