Reflections on a Few Days Off

A Sabbath it was not. The death of a dear friend and parishoner, hospitaliazations, and family emergencies prevented my scheduled days away from qualifying as a total time apart. But it was good to have the flexibility to spend time with the kids before they began their great adventures. Ashley, Matthew, and Margaret, together with Jack the Border Collie, are now at "The House" preparing for the next phase of life and ministry together. Tristan, newly promoted to Lance Corporal, leaves this week for desert training in anticipation of his deployment to South Asia later this year. This was our last time together as a family for some months to come. We laughed much and cried some. God has given us so much together, and now the next stage of our lives begins in earnest. As Rebecca and I sit on the back porch on sultry summer evenings and consider it all, we are compelled to give thanks. In spite of ourselves, He gave us relationships filled with love for one another and for Him. He has used us to instill in our children a sense of duty and purpose, and has sent them forth to serve God and those among whom He deigns to place them, wherever and whatever that may mean. He has given us a home that is as much like paradise as any of us are likely to experience in this world. And He now calls us to face this new situation together, ever growing closer to each other, now that the kids are off and on their own.

It seems strange to be less busy. There are no more afternoons sitting at the school waiting for football practice to let out. Extra jobs that helped to pay for tuition are things of the past, and weekends and evenings are now spent cultivating this little bit of heaven that God has sent our way at Briarwood. With the kid's lives and issues so many miles away, our conversations (if not our thoughts and prayers) are less dominated by their needs, and we are learning once again to listen to and appreciate each other in deeper and more considerate ways. Silence is more the norm now, and we can explore the voice of God in the chirp of the crickets, and experience the aroma of holiness in the smell of ripe grapes clustered on the poultry-yard fence. Small considerations become ever more significant as we learn to serve God by serving each other. Sometimes I wonder why it takes so long to understand certain things that seem so elemental.

The joys of my vacation were memorable: holding Margaret Rose close to my breast, going fishing with Tristan and my Dad, spending the day at the USAF museum in Dayton and listening to my Dad, the old wood-deck sailor, remember the War, and baptizing my grand-daughter, with my son as her god-father. And now the new world is upon us. All has changed, and we move to our next posting. In a very real sense, the torch is passed. It is true that the Devil, that great adversary of our souls, stalks abroad, seeking whom he may devour, but as my children go forth, I am filled with an abiding conviction that our faith, along with this Republic, is in good hands.

Thanks be to God!