Kelly - Genesis 5

I like the way this chapter breaks down the ages of each of these men...
George lived X years, became the father of Herbert, and then lived XX years and then died.

It's almost as if the Bible is acknowledging that life before kids and life after kids should be counted differently - in so many ways it is the beginning of a new lifetime - a new way of counting the years and a new way of looking at the world.

I spent the morning in conversation with a friend - and as I look back on the day, I'm amazed at how much of my conversation was about my kids. Why is it that so much of "ME" and my friendships and my concerns is made up of "THEM"?

There is an old commercial for an insurance company: A man is leaving the maternity ward of the hospital with his wife and baby for the first time - buckling them into the car for the momentous ride home - when a voice says "You will never be the center of your own world again."

There is something holy about learning to see the world on behalf of someone else - looking at everything as it would affect them.

But there is also something holy in the way each of these lives ends. "Altogether, George lived XXX years." At some point I hope to be able to reconcile the "before kids" me with the "after kids" me - and find an "altogether" wholeness.