It was the long weekend; the end of a long, hot summer. Something else that was long was a line of holiday travelers inching its way towards the counter at one of those fast-food coffee places. Fast food, however, was only a wish on that day.
Parents with a variety of kids in tow were trying to end their holidays on a positive and happy note, but it wasn’t easy.
Babies seemed to be restless and hungry, boys ran in various directions trying to find the washroom, girls hugged their stuffed animals of whatever, and pleaded about getting a donut with sprinkles or maybe a chocolate sundae. And fathers and mothers muttered about the crowds, the heat and the high price of gasoline.
One person caught up in the maelstrom of the end of a family holiday was asked the obvious question, “How was your holiday?”
From the sounds of it, he must have been a teacher. He simply quoted Charles Dickenson and the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
There were more than a few chuckles of acknowledgement in that long, hot summer line.
Paul, in writing to one of the early churches, says that it’s easy to get distracted and lose sight of the things that are really important. “…for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen, are eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:18).