Photo by Pantelis Roussakis

By Joy Wong

“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” –Genesis 1:31 NRSV

I’ve always been the kind of person who likes to feel like I’ve mastered something — whether it’s a particular project, a hobby, a performance, etc. One of the greatest challenges I’ve found in parenting, particularly in the first years of life, has been the constant changes.

Even if I’ve finally mastered a routine that works or solved a particular problem, given a day to a few weeks, something will have changed again and what worked before suddenly does not work — because the baby that used to sleep contentedly in her infant chair suddenly doesn’t like it anymore, or the toddler is now potty training for the start of school and is prone to accidents, and the preschooler who used to spend hours at a playground now finds them boring. And we’re back to square one again… and again… and again… and again!

While constant change is something that I’ve had to come to terms with, now having three kids age 5 and under, it’s also been something I can count on. Now I know that the crying will not last forever, nor will the playful and gleeful squeals of the baby. There will be a light at the end of the tunnel in potty training, but also to my toddler’s funny way of saying things in his limited vocabulary. And my preschooler is no longer a preschooler, really — she’s entering kindergarten and starting her elementary years, meaning less time that I have to find activities for her to do, but then, less time with her overall.

Thinking about all this can sometimes put me in a nostalgic, mournful mood. As I approach turning forty years of age, I’ve been reminiscing on past relationships and how different they are now, how much less youthful I feel these days, how fast life seems to be passing me by. Particularly when kids are growing in leaps and bounds right before your eyes, it can feel like life is moving a bit too fast — and it makes me feel old.

Whatever I am feeling about all the changes, what I’ve come to realize is, That’s life! I mean it quite literally. If I was trying to perfect a piano piece or draw a picture, I could master it, because that piano piece or picture is not growing and changing constantly the way my kids are. All living things are aging, growing, changing things, and although I sometimes get mournful about the losses that come with changing and aging, this is life — the life that God declared as “good.” In fact, while we cannot “master” living, growing things (at least, I can’t seem to do it with my kids; can anyone else?), we as human beings are God’s masterpieces. Truly we tend the garden, but it is God who makes living things grow (I Cor. 3:6).

The other day as I was strolling the kids, we noticed a beautiful Jacaranda tree whose blossoms had already begun to fall, carpeting the grass underneath with its fluorescent purple petals. My daughter asked, “If you were that tree, would you be happy or sad?” I gave it some thought, and said, “I think I’d be happy, because I was making everything around me more beautiful.” My hope is that all of life, even with its gains and losses, can be beautiful and beautify the world around us. I’m not always exactly sure how, but I count on God the Master Artist to make it happen.

Joy Wong has an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary, a BA in English from Princeton University, as well as four years’ experience in industrial distribution management.  She is a contributing author to Mirrored Reflections: Reframing Biblical Characters, published in September 2010. Joy and her husband along with their three kids live in Monrovia, California.