Farewell

The bags are finally packed ( I hope )!  The van is loaded, the kids are asleep and I am headed that way myself in a minute.  We are headed out again on our long journey 1/2 way around the world to our other home.  This is always the worst part.  I hate the packing and the last minute rush to wrap up the details.  More than that, I hate the goodbyes.  It just never seems to get any easier, hugging the ones you love and not knowing when you will see them again.  I desperately wish I could just fast forward from last week when we were all sitting around having a lovely time together, straight until we landed in our living room far far away.  This middle week is always torture.  

This visit home was without a doubt, wonderful.  We had so much quality time with people we love so dearly.  Some friends drove for days (sometimes in uncomfortable conditions) just to spend a little time with us.  Others spent their money and time going on vacation with us, or taking us out to dinner, or having us into their home.  Many wonderful sisters and brothers made tons of food to help us put together our dinner party.  Some gave gifts to us or our kids to help us buy something fun or cover travel expenses.  The wonderful people we have met in the different churches we have visited were warm and kind.  Our times with family were precious too.  We had so much time for the kids to play with cousins, cuddle with grandparents, and just be carefree.  It was refreshing and soothing to our tired hearts.  We are SO very thankful that God arranged this trip for us with incredible precision and created for us a wonderful haven of rest and love.  

But now the goodbyes are upon us.  We have said so many this week, with a few of the hardest left for tomorrow morning.  Part of the pain this time comes from the fact that this time a few of the goodbyes will most likely be forever goodbyes.  Of course we never have the guarantee that we will see anyone again, life is brief and unpredictable.  But we both have grandparents in their 80's with failing health and a clearly limited time span before them.  We have shed many tears over those goodbyes.  Time is fleeting and never long enough when it comes to soaking in the ones you have loved for so long.  How to say goodbye when you think it might be forever?  There is no easy answer to that question.  Our prayer and our hope is that they will settle with assurance their account with our Father and accept the life He offers.  Not a temporary and fleeting life like the one we cling to now.  Not a vapor or a wilting flower, but a full and strong life that will forever thrive in the presence of it's Creator.  Goodbyes always remind me of God and His promise that one day I will be done saying goodbye and will have a forever home.  I am living for that day, and with each goodbye I say here on this earth, my desire for that home grows in strength.  

I love the Laura Story song "Blessings" and a line from it has been ringing in my mind since I listened to it this week .  "The pain reminds our heart, that this is not our home". For me that is so true.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Identity

Image
This study of John continues to totally captivate my attention. Most recently one of the things that came out of our study was identity. Jesus repeatedly identifies himself in John; I am: the bread of life, the light of the world, the living water, the way, the truth, the life.   So who am I? A wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, an auntie, a nurse, a teacher.........and on goes the list. But none of those are really me. Those are relationships that I have, or things that I do, but they aren’t me.   I spend a lot of time talking to young people and their parents who are trying to identify who they are. So often the discussion is based around the building of a college application. My child is an athlete, an artist, a musician, a linguist, a maths genius........ Then there are the national identities, and the passport identities, and the religious identities. My child is an A student, a C student. And from the children: I am an academic s...
Read more

Not forgotten

Image
It’s easy to feel forgotten, overlooked, or abandoned in our heart of hearts. Sometimes small things make us feel that way: not being invited to the party or not being acknowledged for a job well done. Sometimes it is much bigger things: extended illness, infertility, or loosing a job. Beyond this exist even heavier things that we shy away from thinking about: poverty, the loss of a loved one or violence. Whether big or small, intentional or unintentional, inflicted by fellow man or allowed by God, these disappointments leave behind varying levels of deep and painful wounds that are often difficult for anyone else to see.  Our tendency is to guard these wounds carefully and to protect ourselves in any way possible from the pain that they bring. Simultaneously most of us still wish to be noticed and to be known, but our fear of letting down that guard and letting anyone close enough to see our quiet pain or worse touch the pain holds us back. As a result, no one really know...
Read more

The Fount of Every Blessing

My birthday has rolled around again (that happens so quickly these days J ).   Sometimes, I’m surprised by my own age, I’ll wake up some mornings and think I’m still in my 20’s only to jolt myself back to reality that more time has passed then I think.   We use our birthdays and anniversaries to mark the passage of time.   They call us to stop and remember what has happened since the last time we passed this way. And whether the memories are good or bad there is something in us that needs to recall, evaluate, and acknowledge what has transpired.   As I pass my milestone this year I am captivated by the words of a very old hymn penned in 1757 by Robert Robinson, “Come Thou Fount”.   “Come thou fount of every blessing tune my heart to sing thy grace.”   Looking back over my year and even farther past that into the years before, I find that my life is covered with evidences of God’s grace.   They are weaved into every portion of my existence and...
Read more