Children

A loud cry into the world
And out ventures every baby boy and girl.
They are cradled in arms, seats, and beds
Then, they crawl on the floor instead.
They take a step then fall, step then fall,
Till they walk, and we all
Wonder: where the time has gone.
Still, the pondering continues much past one.
We tell them rhymes unlike the last,
And they learn mimicry much too fast
For censorship or thought.
“Was I store-bought?”
They might ask,
Or say something else to make us laugh.
They take each step before our eyes,
And soon we say goodbye
To them when they go off to school—
First: elementary, middle, then high.
Dropping them off at college feels like the last time
We will ever see them again and begin to cry.
Still, the final step at the wedding aisle
Is the hardest goodbye.
We return home to our empty nest,
And wonder if we did our best.
We turn to our spouse and say “yes,”
If we shared Christ: that is the final test.

by David Ballard