For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: / a time to be born, and a time to die; / a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; / a time to kill, and a time to heal; / a time to break down, and a time to build up; / a time to weep, and a time to laugh; / a time to mourn, and a time to dance; / a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; / a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; / a time to seek, and a time to lose; / a time to keep, and a time to throw away; / a time to tear, and a time to sew; / a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; / a time to love, and a time to hate; / a time for war, and a time for peace. — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

In the seven and a half years since our coming to Cortez we have shared a lot of good and not so good times with many, many people in our congregation, and a lot of blessings.

It really has been our honor and our pleasure to serve this church family, and the time has gone fast! No, we aren’t leaving — just reminiscing.

Every Christmas my boys and I commemorate each passing year by making my wife, Kim, a collage of pictures from the last year and hanging it in the hall between our bedrooms.

Many times as I pass down the hall I lose myself in looking at the picture from the past years.

Kim has not changed much. I’ve changed a little; my beard has more gray in it.

But, wow, I can hardly believe how much my boys have changed! Matt was 5 when we moved here, and had not yet started kindergarten. He is now in the middle of his seventh-grade year. Chuck was 8, and just entering third grade. He is now a junior in high school and old enough to drive!

Still reminiscing, I think back to the fall of 2004; Matt was still periodically taking a nap. We had a meeting at church that afternoon, but didn’t want him waking up and being frightened with only a dog to greet him.

So my ingenious wife drew him a picture with stick figures of Mom and Dad standing beside a big arrow that was pointing at a church. If I remember correctly, he understood it and joined us with a sleepy grin on his face.

Not too long ago, at Kim’s mom’s house in Colorado Springs, the roles were reversed. Kim and I slept in one morning. When I finally roused myself, I looked in the boys’ bedroom. They were gone, but there was a note written in Matt’s combination block lettering and cursive:

“We are down stares”

Terrible spelling aside, this note meant that Matt and Chuck were in the basement reading or playing.

I can’t believe how fast our roles have reversed. Instead of leaving pictograms for Matt, he is leaving us handwritten notes.

I realized that morning that the role reversal is just beginning. Time keeps moving on. Very soon, Matt and Chuck will be the responsible adults. I won’t be taking care of them, making sure they eat, getting them to places on time, helping in a hundred different ways.

All too soon they will be getting me to eat, taking me to my appointments, and helping me in a thousand different ways.

That’s life. One of our primary jobs in life is serving the Lord by raising our children, not so they can take care of us in our dotage, but because it is our Biblical calling and so they can really know the joy of loving and serving the Lord in their church, community and their own homes.

Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. — Ephesians 6:21

We pray for all of us in our community, that as the children and grandchildren continue to grow, we can teach, discipline, and bring them up in the Lord.



The Rev. Steve Nofel is co-pastor of Montezuma Valley Presbyterian Church.