A Wrinkle in Time

The first time I noticed it was when I saw Caleb for the first time after we arrived at camp. He had been gone for fifteen days. If you have been reading my blog for a while, then you will remember when he went wilderness camping in the mountains last August. Maybe it was because I hadn't seen him for so long. After all, it was the longest we had ever been apart from one another.

As a mother, I was checking him out to make sure everything was OK. And then I saw it. I looked again and started searching my memory. Had I forgotten? No. I didn't remember seeing it there before. There it was plain as day. And I just couldn't take my eyes off it.

A wrinkle.

When my son smiled, there was a small wrinkle under the corner of his right eye. No, not crows feet. Not that kind of a wrinkle.

I didn't say anything to anyone. Actually, for quite a while I kept it to myself. I kept staring and wondered why Caleb hadn't noticed. I guess he didn't realize I was actually staring. Until that day when the tears came. My tears.

You see, as my son has turned into a man right before my eyes, this little wrinkle came with some of the changes he has gone through. That little wrinkle? Well, it belonged to my brother. My brother has been gone for six years now. Even still, I remember my brother's wrinkle as if he were sitting here in front of me. When he smiled, that little wrinkle would show itself.

Somehow through the amazing transfer of genes in our DNA, my son received that little smile wrinkle from my brother. It's his wrinkle in time.

And I'm happy it's there...so I can remember.