I knew it was just me.
Well, hang with me cause I promise this will take a positive spin. I was in bed last night waiting for my husband to complete his next virtual level in some world that does not exist when I began thinking about the date. Now, I've already been here, done this, so I'm not going to repeat what you've already read (it may have been painful enough the first time). Suffice it to say, four years ago on this very date, I hugged my grandma on her front porch (it would be the last time I would be at her house while she was alive), hugged my mom and dad (and I won't even allow myself to dwell on that), and loaded two kids into a car to be followed by another kid riding with his dad in a moving truck.
We called it The Great Adventure.
Now I just refer to it as The Great Move of 2007.
Eight hundred and eighty-two miles in the wrong direction.
Okay. That's enough with that side of it.
I opened up my bible this morning looking for something in particular I knew I had marked. Referring to the great heroes and heroines of faith that lived in Old Testament times- and let me interrupt this thought for a shout-out to my 3rd/4th grade class of 2005-2006 (?) that memorized the entire chapter and brought the house down at our Spring Presentation. Anyway, Hebrews 11 recalls the big faith moments of people like Abraham and Enoch and Noah and Moses and Rahab... you get the idea. Verses 14-16 are circled in my bible with squiggly lines and arrows pointing to it with particular emphasis on verse 15:
Now those people who talk as they did show plainly that they are in search of a fatherland (their own country). If they had been thinking with [homesick] remembrance of that country from which they were emigrants, they would have found constant opportunity to return to it. But the truth is that they were yearning for and aspiring to a better and more desirable country, that is, a heavenly [one]. For that reason God is not ashamed to be called their God [even to be surnamed their God--the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob], for He has prepared a city for them.
Now don't get me wrong. As far as I was concerned, we were in our own country, but you get the point. The date inscribed by these verses would put us about one month into The Great Move. Believe me, I found constant opportunity to return home. And again, it's as tempting as ever to have a seat, kick my feet up, and keep these thoughts company for a long time; but for the sake of my day, I'm not gonna do it.
Yes. Our mortgage doubled.
Yes. Our income dropped.
But we are still here. Our family is still under one roof, new friends have been made, and we are probably closer to the Lord than we would have been had we stayed. There is something to be said about getting too comfortable. Complacency is a dangerous thing. I know for a fact that I was losing my identity in the work I was doing. I forgot who I was in Him. Hey, I'll never pretend to know the real reason for all this, but He brings good out of all things. Sometimes a hard look in the mirror is the hardest thing to do.
So tonight I think I am going to plan a little celebration dinner. I may be the only one in this family who takes note of the date, but I happen to think survival is a good thing to celebrate. Not just survival of a move and all that went with it, but survival of life. Loss. Heartbreak. Despair. Homesickness. Depression.
Hope.
And not the hope our current administration gives.
Thank God for that. My hope is real.
And now, Lord, what do I wait for and expect?
My hope and expectation are in You.
Psalm 39:7
1 comment:
I try very hard not to wish you back into your old homeland, because what do I know?
Post a Comment