Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Leaving and Going

I've been re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring. It's a good time to read it. In the chapter called "Many Meetings", Frodo visits Rivendell, the home of Elrond the Elf-lord. The description of that house given by Bilbo captures my feeling for our home here in Illinois, which we'll be leaving for good in less than a week:

"That house was, as Biblo had long ago reported, 'a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thingking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all'. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear, and sadness."

I am confident our new place in Louisville will be the same. It's not the rooms or the square footage or the color of the walls or the water pressure. It's the people who inhabit a place who make it "a perfect house". And the three people who have made our home "a cure for weariness, fear, and sadness" will be present in our Lousiville home: Josh, Gretchen, and (most important of all) the Lord Jesus, who is the reason for our going in the first place. He says in Matthew 28:20, "I am with you always, to the end of the age." and elsewhere we read, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)

4 comments:

Gretchen said...

I feel the same about our presh home. It is so perfect for so many things. "The Lord is my Home".

Anonymous said...

It's so fun reading your blog! It's such an encouragement to me!! I'm so proud that you are my older brother!! You are such a godly person!! I am faithfully praying for you and Gret this week! I know it will be a tough one. Praise the Lord for this step of faith you have commited to! I love you guys tons and tons!! Can't wait to come visit soon!

Anonymous said...

'Bout time you posted SOMETHING....just think if your 3 person home seems lonely, we can take a 2 hr. road trip and drop off 1-4 - you're choice!

Brad and I will be praying for your move and the adjustments to follow. Treat it as an awesome adventure to grow with our Savior and your beauty of a wife!

Anonymous said...

I remember a time when we drove away and left you sitting on a rock your first year at MBBC. That was a hard thing. Hard for me and hard for you. While I knew the Lord's promise not to leave or forsake, I was so sad for the aloneness you were experiencing and the forsaking I was doing. It just seemed like it should have been different than just leaving you alone on that rock! Now, nine years later I can tell you that that rock represents such a powerful spiritual blessing to me. While we left you sitting on that rock (it was a nice rock, just the right size to sit on, under a tree and with a nice view) we were only able to do it because we were leaning on another ROCK. The rock Jesus Christ! We were just dying inside! Now nine years later we can see that you are leaning solidly on that other ROCK also. We see that the day we left you on that rock was the start of a journey that God had started years before. You are now starting a new part of that same journey. We are also so thankful you have found such a wonderful person to go with you. It is such a blessing and comforting (parentally speaking) to know you are not alone, and that she also trusts the ROCK. We want you both to know we can only imagine and very much feel for your hurt as you say goodbye and continue on your journey. We will pray for you and want you to know we are proud (humbly, and in the right way I hope)of you both! Since this blog thing is for you young folks and I am old I will close with this (I can hear Kari now) ROCK ON!