Can you believe the holiday season is already here?! Wasn’t Labor Day just a couple of weeks ago? Where did the year go?

Time goes by so quickly. You moms, grandmas and aunts out there know this. You look at your babies who no longer are babies, and you have to shake your head in wonder. Has enough time really gone by to account for the changes you see? Apparently so, though you can’t quite make sense of when or how the changes took place. But then take a look at yourself. You started out as somebody’s baby, too, you know.

Most of us don’t like to think about how quickly our lives pass. We like to think that somehow our lives, our families, our baby’s childhoods will last. And even though we know better, we feel a little surprised, a little disappointed, when we realize that no, time will not stand still for us either. The holidays can make this realization especially sharp.

But don’t despair. If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, one day time really will have no authority over you. Eternity will be yours. You will never have to feel the sadness that comes from knowing time with loved ones has passed. You will have all of forever — all of forever! — in a wonderful, perfect, joyous place. Best of all, God will be there, and we will be His children forever.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away … . And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ “ Revelation 21:1, 3, 4.