By Ashlie Miller

It has become a common reflection that January drags on, but February is over before you realize it even began! Well, usually, that is the case. However, many may argue that with Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction of six more weeks of winter, it has been more like Februweary – neverending. Are there seasons you wish you could speed up? It is a sentiment that is as old as legends. 

In Book of Virtues, William Bennett includes a story in the anthology about a young boy (Peter) eager to get through the boring and mundane things of life (like school days) to have fun and enjoy life. One day, an old woman meets him in the woods and offers him an extraordinary gift – a shiny ball filled with a golden thread. Ever so slowly, the thread dispenses from the ball with the passage of each moment. A word of caution accompanies the gift – the child may speed time by pulling the thread but can never put the thread back into the ball. Thus, careful consideration before tugging the string is a must. Also, he may never tell a living soul about this magical gift, or he will die.

Peter thoughtfully considers pulling the string while at school to rush towards playtime. After a while, that is not enough, and he is ready to be through with school years altogether. As you can imagine, the boy wishes to rush through many other struggles and heartaches – learning a trade, waiting to marry his sweetheart, years in the military, hard times as a family man, and the sickness of loved ones. Finally, as he ages, he notices his mother has, too, a little too quickly and then dies. He looks at the ball, whose thread has turned to silver and then a dull gray, and realizes that while he has gotten his wish to hurry time, he has also rushed life for himself and others. In his desire to get through mundane, tedious, difficult, and hard seasons in life, he now looks back on missed days accumulated as years with those he loved. Much of life was in both the tedium and the hardships.

We may not be assisting our moments and days away with a magical ball, but the lure of technology, numbing entertainment at the tip of our fingers, and mindless scrolling are but a few of the aids that have stolen our time. Are we conscious of the time we are losing? Are electronic devices the magic ball pushing us through time instead of experiencing seasons gloriously or even mostly unremarkably? Perhaps you can think of other things getting in the way of relishing simple joys.

Christians understand the need to make the best use of time (see Ephesians 5:16). Sometimes the best use of the time is not in our productivity or arriving at the goal but in the slow process of investing in the precious lives about us – little people in our shadows, cherishing those in the winter of life, appreciating those with whom you live and should love daily but most likely take for granted.

What will you see as you look back over your life – memories to cherish or missed opportunities – even in the uneventful or difficult seasons? How are you cherishing and investing today? There are still a few days left this short month – redeem the days you have ahead.

Ashlie Miller has enjoyed a very boring winter with her family in Concord, NC. You may connect with her at mrs.ashliemiller@gmail.com.