Yesterday, Jill and her son, Drew, finally arrived at our home – they will stay with us until their family purchases a home in the next several weeks. Then, hopefully, things will go smoothly and they will be able to close on a home and move in to begin their life here in Indiana. Tom, who has stayed in Oklahoma to finish packing, will soon follow and the family will be united sometime over the summer. The most important part of this is that Drew will be settled in time to begin school here locally in the fall.
While Janet and I understood Jill’s desire to move to Oklahoma eighteen years ago, it was difficult for us to lose the life we had with her for all her formative years. When our grandson, Drew, came along, it made it even more difficult to get to know him the way we know our other three grandsons who live five minutes from us here in Carmel. Their little town in Oklahoma is a world away from the social scene and activities we have here in central Indiana. And certainly, I am not saying that one is better than the other – but they are vastly different and appeal to different lifestyles.
Jill was originally going to move back here with the family when Drew was born. Then it was delayed a while, with the conviction that they would be out of Oklahoma be the time that Drew started school. Throughout the years, I really think that Janet and I gave up on the idea that Jill, Tom and Drew would ever come back here.
Admittedly, we asked Jill when they would be returning, back in the early years. Sooner or later, we stopped asking. We figured that Jill and her family clearly had the right to determine where they wanted to live – and it wasn’t central Indiana.
Tonight I heard a statement that really resonated with me. We were attending a choral concert for another one of our grandsons and the lady who had organized the evening was making remarks about how quickly time slips away. She said, “the days move so slowly, but the years fly by.” I had to reflect on that a minute but I really agree with her. To think that here we were, attending a concert for our grandson who is in high school. And it seems like just yesterday that our kids were in school. But they graduated from high school more than a quarter of a century ago!
This whole experience, the concert this evening as well as Jill’s decision to finally move back to central Indiana, has really driven home the idea that the years fly by. Of course, when we desperately want something to happen, we implore God to make it happen right away. In our case, God hasn’t answered our prayers for the past eighteen years.
And isn’t it true that we want to be in the will of God as long as His will is aligned with what we want for ourselves? Then, when you finally give up hope of anything changing, and you accept the status quo, God suddenly throws a curve ball and out of the blue, things begin to happen. That’s where we are tonight. Jill and Drew are here – moved into our home, so to speak. And Tom will be joining them as soon as he finishes packing up the house and they get ready to close on a home here.
Our verse for this evening is from the book of Ecclesiastes. King Solomon tells us, in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” I think that is so true – God has made everything beautiful in HIS time – not ours. Maybe, just maybe, His time is finally aligned with our time.
My encouragement this evening is that God loves it when we let go and follow His desire for our lives. My prayer is that we all can become more patient and believe that when His plan finally comes together, we will experience greater joy than we could ever imagine – and His plan will be greater than anything we could have foreseen. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…