Thirty Days- Days Fourteen thru Twenty- What Peter Pans and Velveteen Rabbits We Are

Isn't it crazy how life flies by?

You remember your very first day of school, maybe some of your teachers, flash forward to your first kiss in junior high to graduation, suddenly you move out of state, get married, start having children then they're older, another year older, five-six-seven years fly by then add four more.

Okay, so I haven't REALLY been thinking about that, except for today. I must be ovulating because I was an emotional wreck today.

Piper and I are reading Peter Pan for school. We're almost done; Peter has decided to take Wendy & the Lost Boys back home. While she was doing her workbook, I peeked at the following pages because I always remembered how bittersweet the last part was....that Peter continued to live on the Neverland, forgetting Wendy and Wendy grew up. She couldn't fly anymore and I thought......I can't fly anymore. I'm Wendy. I'll never be a child again. I'll never have those Saturdays where I lay around reading. I'll never have late night dance parties to horrible 90's music with my sister.

I tried explaining that to Piper, while choking up, that we get older with every second we're alive. She responded with a Piper-esque, "Well.....I'm still only 7." Yes, my love, you are....but before you know it, you'll be 14, then 21, 28 & 35. The years will go on and on.

Then, I warned Samantha that the Velveteen Rabbit always made me cry and of course, we're reading that in school as well. So we get to the part where the Rabbit cries and the nursery magic fairy makes him Real....and I lose it. She takes his broken down, worn out body and makes him REAL...like Christ, who takes us when we are broken down, weary and worn out...and he makes us REAL. I began thinking about someone who died recently....that in that last moment, was Christ there with them, holding their broken body, whispering in their ear that it is time to be made new? Heck...we'll never know until we're in that spot. My friend Tom said it best:

"We have this thing we call faith, but that final moment....well that is the moment. Isn't it?  Will we close our eyes only to see nothing but never know that nothing is all we will see? Or, will our faith be vindicated by the sight of things that cannot be uttered here on earth? Its funny how we both pity and envy the dead all the while that we see their likenesses in the velveteen rabbits that capture our imagination."

I'm not good at spreading God's love to others. I'm always nervous about what they will think or say. But I say this now.....you are loved by someone greater than we are. All you have to do is ask Him to make you Real because He loves you when you are shabby, worn down and out of sorts. Because He loves you that much, only He can give you that true happiness and love that you will never feel from anyone else. We don't have time to waste. We are not promised any seconds of our life. This is not the Neverland...Let Him make you Real so that the day you close your eyes for the last time, you will have Him there to take your broken body and make you new....to set you free...to give you that life everlasting.

We feel like we are Peter Pan, but really...we are all just Velveteen Rabbits.