Life is like a spool of golden thread. The thread is placed in the hand of a newborn who holds it while the thread is pulled through day by day by the ones around who love him. But soon the awareness of familiar faces, food, smells, sounds, and gentle touches begins the learning process of holding the thread of life in his own hands.
A child learning “all them new things”—as Bob Benson quotes his little son Tom as saying when watching his baby brother Patrick—soon grasps the thread and begins the rushing through the thread of new discoveries to the next adventure so fast there is not time for considering. With so much cord yet to unwind, the child can’t wait to ponder today’s piece but lets it fall behind him for the fascination of what is yet to be run through the fingers.
The thread, though sparkling and golden, is thin at first with little dimension. There is just too much excitement about what comes next! Gradually, though, the thread of the growing child begins to have some texture and volume; she begins to recognize that each day’s discovery comes with a memory of other days and other similar times and brings a history to the new experiences.
Trials and errors, joys and disappointments start to give each day’s learning some context. The drawing of each new adventure begins to be painted on the background of blue sky (or gray), water or desert, flatlands or mountains. The thrill of something new is tempered by past memories.
As adolescence turns into adulthood, each new measure of golden thread has, itself, dimension and volume, for braided into it is former fibers of laughter and tears, past successes and failures, remembered joys and sorrows of earlier explorations.
As the thread of life passes the midpoint of the spool, perspective is added to the texture. Whereas the goal of earlier pursuits might have been knowledge and adventure, the latter half of life, hopefully, becomes the quest for wisdom and depth. Instead of life-experiment being about the pursual of things tangible, material, and immediate, there comes a vacuum that only things intangible and spiritual can fill.
The longer one lives, the more substantial grows the golden thread, either encumbered with the baggage of possessions and reputations or enriched by appreciation and gratitude for insights and deep relationships. There comes a sense of “rewinding” the spool, savoring each experienced-before place, friendship, family gathering, and holiday with the perspective and appreciation that only a history with God can give.
No wonder the Psalmist sang, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” He could well have sung “Taste and see and touch and hear and smell the wonder of life, because all good and perfect gifts come from above”.
Parents can teach children from the start to notice—to taste the tastes, to feel the textures (and feel the feelings), to hear the sounds, to see the beauty, and smell the aromas of life. Perhaps only the rewinding of life’s golden thread, can intensify the depth of gratitude and teach the deep wisdom in savoring life.
Finally, all the disconnect of individual experiences are gradually braided into the thread of life until we literally see that thread tied to the Bright and Morning Star, blown by the Mighty Rushing Wind into the presence of one who is Faithful and True—The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End of our fragile golden thread of Life.