Twinkling of My Eye

. . . in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1 Corinthians 15:52

Here it is 4:30 in the morning and I am awake! I couldn’t get back to sleep for thinking about a time years ago when I was driving up Manitoba Street in Bracebridge, so I got up and began writing my memories as they flooded into my mind.

I was driving up from Toronto to visit my mom and dad while my husband, Neil, and four children, who were tweens and teens at the time, stayed at home to attend school.  I rarely left them for long and always with a larder full and at the ready to satisfy their appetites and their hollow legs.

So it was with a grateful heart and a feeling of much-enjoyed freedom from daily chores that this busy mother of four was taking a few days off to visit her parents.

I was young when I married and fresh out of business school, working as a private secretary, known nowadays as an Administrative Assistant.  By the time of my marriage, I had one job under my belt at McMaster University, working for a professor named Dr. Duckworth.  A really kind, and fortunately for me, a very patient Dutchman.

My mom and dad, at the time of my marriage, were still raising three of my sisters, ranging in age from their late teens to the youngest, who was 18 months old, as we all gathered for my wedding on a sunny, happy, hot summer day in August 1956.

The Bible tells us over and over again throughout its pages to be ready as time goes by in the ‘Twinkling of an eye’.  It warns us to be prepared for the quick passage of time by having the oil ready in our lamps.  Don’t be caught unprepared, John 10 tells us — “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

It’s hard enough to prepare ourselves for the ‘twinkling’ changes in our own bodies as the days quickly turn into years, but seeing that same time slip by in our parents usually comes as a complete shock at the epiphany: “Oh my goodness, my parents are old!”

At this point in my life, the twinkling of an eye was beginning to come into my eyesight, but my parents’ twinkling was growing dimmer in the continuum of time.

As I was saying when I began this walk down memory lane… I was driving up Manitoba Street in Bracebridge and was almost at where Oliver’s Coffee shop is today, which at the time was called The Dairy Bar.  I saw up ahead on my right an old gentleman bent over and walking with some difficulty with the aid of a cane, and I thought to myself, “That poor old fellow”.   As I came up closer and was ready to pass him, I glanced at his face and realized in complete shock, “Oh my goodness, that’s my father!”

My Dad, who, when I was young, was so strong that he could take three of us girls hanging on to his back as he swam out into the deep lake.

My Dad, who has strong but gentle hands, played wonderful, melodious music on his Hawaiian and Spanish guitars while singing The Old Rugged Cross in his clear tenor voice.

My Dad, who has a wonderful sense of humour, had us all in stitches with his funny jokes, puns and witticisms during happy gatherings and holidays.

My Dad, who laboured in gold mines and lumber mills to put food on the table and into his family’s hollow legs.

My Dad, who finished grade thirteen at a time when most men went out to work, usually at the end of grade eight if they were lucky enough to get that far.

My Dad, who gave up his dream of becoming a doctor because no money was available for that Italian immigrant.

My Dad, in the ‘twinkling of an eye,’ was this old man!  All strength and dreams long past, leaning on his cane while struggling with life’s challenges, right up until Jesus called him home in 1984.

Now it is my turn! Time stands still for no one, so the old saying goes. Like my dad, the oil in my lamp is ready for my entrance into that heavenly city where my Saviour paid dearly for my entrance fee.

Heaven, where all who enter through the narrow gate, will once again be young and strong and receive the gift of living eternally with Jesus.

What about you?  Is your ‘twinkling’ fading away?  Don’t tarry like the virgins who went back for oil and missed the wedding because the door was shut when they returned.  When they knocked, the Bridegroom answered and said, “Sorry, you can’t come in as I don’t know you”.  There will be no gate-crashing at that wedding feast.

So don’t tarry, and remember … “It will come upon you like a thief in the night.” 