The Empty Swing

Editor, Wisconsin Christian News:

   It was hard to tell who was having the most fun: my young daughter, swinging and smiling, sometimes laughing, or me her father.  “Higher,”  she would say, gleefully.  Swinging continued until she got too grown up for such childish entertainment.

   Then, one day she was grown up and no longer at our home, because she had her own.  However, the swing remained, hanging empty from a tree limb.  I couldn’t help but look at it wistfully, hanging there as if dejected, waiting, longing for those happy times.  And the cheery pleas, “Higher,” “higher!”   I listen now, but all I hear is the rustling of leaves, by the afternoon breeze.

   One day our daughter came to visit.  She was in the kitchen, talking to her mother.  I didn’t want to interrupt what sounded like a serious conversation.  However, I did overhear her say, “I’m pregnant.”

   Then I went on about my business, outdoors in the backyard.  Just piddling, looking for ripe tomatoes in the garden, admiring the flowers; roses, marigolds, petunias, and the persistent dandelions.  Then the swing caught my eye, hanging there in the tree, motionless and empty.

   Then the words, “I’m pregnant,” jogged my memory ...