Beautiful Boy

I am currently reading a book
called Beautiful Boy
by David Sheff.

It is the true story
of a father's journey
through his son's drug addiction.

It is harrowing, scary
and beautifully written.

Here is an excerpt that touched my heart:

"In the car, however, I see a stranger.
And yet, he is a stranger whose every part I know intimately.
I recall his soft eyes when they were elated
and when they were disappointed,
his face when he was pallid from illness
and when he was burned red by the sun,
his mouth and even each tooth from visits to the dentist
and the orthodontist,
his knees from when he skinned them
and I put on Band-Aids,
his shoulders from putting on sun block
his feet from taking out splinters- every part of him."

This struck me as being so true- how intimately we know our children-
we know every nook and cranny and nuance
of their beings.
Yet even as we minister to them, we do not know what their future will hold.

Even as we save for their college,
dream of their weddings
and playing with the children they give us
in our retirement,
we don't know what the future will hold.

So for them we hope,
we dream,
and we pray
that our dreams will come true for them

and that God willing,
their lives will be even more deeply blessed than our own.

We hold them,
and we pray.