On leaving and loving

          Leaving Charlotte and riding the train back to Raleigh.  As I gaze out the window, watching the lovely, green North Carolina countryside slip by, my heart is full.  Full of thanksgiving.  Full of love.  Full of the recognition of God's unbelievable and relentless grace in all of our lives.  Full of joy, though tinged with a touch of the bittersweet.
         For you see, I'm returning from a weekend visit with our oldest daughter and her husband and our oldest son, all of whom live in Charlotte.  We're a "divide and conquer" family this weekend as my husband's at a golf tournament with our youngest child while our two other children are in Chapel Hill.  So, pretty much all over the state this weekend.  But what joy to be able to spend some time with our Charlotte crew and experience a bit of their life in the big city.  And it was a wonderful weekend!

(couldn't resist this one--taken last night on Franklin St. when the heels won to get to the final game!  Just enjoying it while it lasts!)

        Yet that's where the bittersweet mixes with the joy--leaving those you love is just never fun...even when you're returning to an equally special place like home and containing equally beloved and cherished people.  I guess I'd just love for all of us to be together all of the time--sharing, laughing, eating, enjoying, walking together through all of life...
        ...but then, that would be heaven, wouldn't it?    What a place that will be!
        So as I sit here leaving some I love behind and returning to others I love ahead, I simply say thank You to my Heavenly Father.  Thank You for this brief but beautiful dance on Your planet, Lord. Thank You for Your gifts upon gifts upon gifts.
        Countless gifts...but today, I'm thinking of Your gifts of people and relationships.  Thank You for husband, children, sisters, brothers, friends, acquaintances.  Thank You for those who have gone ahead of us into heaven--parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, beloved friends.  Thank You for the joy of loving others and being loved...even when it hurts.  Even when we fail.  Even we have to say "I'm sorry" or "Please forgive me" or "Let's try again and do better next time" or "Goodbye" or "I miss you."
        Tim Keller says that "If this world was made by a triune God, relationships of love are what life is really all about."  Loving God, first and foremost, and loving others.  And Paul tells us in I Corinthians 13 that even if we're the wisest or most faithful or most successful or most amazing anything, if we're not people characterized by love--by love more than anything else--then we might as well be out there banging and clanging and annoying the fool out of everyone.
        So Lord, thank You for those we love...and please, please, help us, teach us, enable us to love them fully and well.  Help us to set aside our selfishness, critical spirits, foolish pride. and busy preoccupation so that we can all love like Jesus loved You and You loved Him.  An others focused love.  A self-denying love.  An others glorifying love,  An others serving love.
       As Paul prayed in Philippians 1: "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy...And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace..."
       Yes, Father, that is our prayer for those we love.  Thank You for love.  Teach us to love.  Help us to love.  Empower us to love.  In the coming and the going.  In the high times and the hard times.  Today and every day...love.  
       To God be the glory.