Written by an anonymous author from their perspective on American life, particularly in the plain communities they have known...
There never was time...
To marvel at the thousands of sunsets that tinted the western sky with rosy hues.
To wonder at the sky blue robin's eggs that the boys found in the cedar trees by the house.
To walk to the woods and sit by the pond, observing the wildlife and hearing the boy's hopes and dreams.
To pause from the mountains of work created by a lifestyle of materialism and opulence to smile into a child's eyes, or simply rock a baby for no reason at all.
To sit with the family in the grass at dusk and watch the stars come out in the night skies.
To take the country walks they often talked of doing together.
To sit around the Word of God and marvel at its teachings.
There never was time...
To pause and slow down, sitting together with the family to pray over a sick child, or to bring a broken heart to God. It was always more important to get the work done and to push the hurting one aside.
To pray each night, hearing the hearts of the family and taking them to the only One who can hear our deepest needs.
There never was time...
To sit in the middle of the day sometimes and just play games with the children, or eat watermelon at the picnic table on a hazy summer afternoon with the family.
To grow their own food and share the bounty with the neighbors. Always they were in a rush and their attempts at growing a garden ended in disaster some years because their lives were full of trying to make lots of money to pay for all their expensive vehicles and the opulent lifestyle they chose to live.
To sit at the river's edge and watch the current move idly by...pondering life and love and all sorts of meaningful things.
To read a book by a quiet stream
To go on a walk with a hurting soul, letting them share their heart and pointing them to Jesus
To make the Lord the true King of their lives. Always there was a rush to get out the door in the mornings to work to pay the bills (a good third of them which were not needs but wants), or to rush off to revival meetings at church (because after all, the bishop will question you if you are not there). And then it was night and they were tired, and their physical bodies needed rest, but they didn't get to bed as early as they should have because their work kept them up late at night.
There never was time....
And how sad it was that in their old age, they had time to sit in their rockers, diseased from the rushed lifestyle and the rich food they ate in their opulence, while their children rushed about on the rat race their parents taught them to live. They had plenty of time then to think about what life would have been like if only they had taken the time God gave them and used it more wisely than wasting it in riotous living and gathering up treasures on earth and living in the here and now in the pursuit of happiness.
They now had time to wish their children and grandchildren had time to come see them, but they were too busy making a living to keep up with an even more opulent lifestyle than they themselves had lived. They had time now to hear their grandchildren complaining and demanding that their parents provide better things for them than the already expensive things they have been given.
They had time to wish that people had been more important to them than things.
They now had time to weep deeply at the life they could have lived, had they only chosen to take the time...
