Faith Through the Journey

Tonight I was FLOODED with memories as I stood at the foot of our stairway. I’m home alone–with the dog–and I remembered so many other nights when the house was very busy, hours from shutting down for the night. People came and went, even on school nights, and there were nights people were up until midnight finishing projects (or even me doing laundry!). Because we have lived in our present home for 28 years, it is the only home our two daughters knew, and our son was 18 months old when we moved here. When I was growing up, we moved a number of times so there wasn’t a house where I felt long-term ties. As we left different states, there was the tug of no longer having a home in that state, and viewing those houses on rare visits to those states brought memories of a life that was good, but no longer the life we were living.

Our children have felt those ties to grandparents’ houses as well. After 2005, the homes our parents lived in, and which our children knew as “Grandma’s and Grandpa’s” house, were no longer their grandparents’ residences. There have been a few opportunities for our children to drive past the homes they played in as children visiting grandparents and playing with cousins, and it’s probably a good thing they have seen them “post-grandparents”. As parents, we don’t think of our “twentysomething” children needing closure, and yet they too needed to say goodbye to those places that were part of their childhood memories.

My husband and I have talked about moving, and we dismiss that in about 2 seconds. Perhaps we’re just getting old and don’t want to go through the enormous process, but we like where we live and don’t want to move for the sake of moving! We don’t feel that we HAVE to stay here “for the sake of our children”, and yet they do feel at home when they pull up to the house and walk into the front door. We’ve changed some things inside the house, but I think they do feel very much at home when they walk through the door (the new front door!).

Life changes–we all know that. What I find precious is that, regardless of the geographical location, relationships endure. We may never enter the same physical location that invokes memories of years gone by, but as long as there are rich memories of family and shared experiences, we have an enduring legacy. As we also share faith with those loved ones, we know that our relationships are eternal as well. The heavenly, eternal relationships will be even sweeter, knowing that our times together will never end. There will be no more good-byes, only a grand forever!