Time, Eternity, and Katy Rei

Yes, my t-shirt does say 'the thesaurus.' If you're curious, click here to view the design.

Ever since January, when I learned that my friend Melissa was expecting, I eagerly anticipated meeting her baby. In childhood, I always looked forward to the stage of life where friends would get married and have children, but I never expected it to happen so soon, and it's been wonderful. Katy Rei came into the world on the night of September eleventh, and I got to meet her two days later, visiting the hospital at the same time as some other friends. It was a special, memorable day.

 I have never been the type of female who gets giddily excited over babies, but as I have gotten older, the general biological instincts have kicked in, and meeting a friend's new baby was an exception circumstance anyway. I was beyond excited, and it was an incredible experience to hold a sleeping infant and feel her tiny, solid warmth put the world back into perspective. When I looked down into her face, I saw chubby cheeks and tiny eyebrows, but I also saw unimagined potential: the face of an individual life, but also a member of a new generation. There is something unspeakably wonderful about holding the future in your arms.

      At the same time that I marveled over new life, however, I also considered how quickly it rushes through one's fingers, even when you try to be aware and make the most of every moment. I saw Melissa's birthdate printed on something at the hospital, and did a double-take: "DOB: 05-17-1995 (20 years)." How was 1995 twenty years ago? I know my friend is twenty, and I have other friends who are older, but how did we all get here? Standing there in the maternity ward, visiting my friend and her baby, it felt like I had traveled in time, but I got to the future the natural way: by the inexorable, blurring passage of days.

"If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is it that you don’t feel at home there?" C.S. Lewis asked in one of his published letters. "Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures? Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. ("How time flies! Fancy John being grown-up & married! I can hardly believe it!") In heaven’s name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something in us which is not temporal."

      Meeting this tiny, exquisite little life was a tangible reminder that we are not just creatures of earth, but are gifted with immortal souls. I hope that Katy Rei has long, wonderful, joy-filled years, but most of all, I hope that she comes to know her Creator and lives out her days with the assurance that life is more than strange, fleeting, and beautiful, but is a shadow of what awaits us in eternity.