No Disney-themed birthday parties or trips to the city swimming pool for this birthday girl this year. In true TCK style, Annora celebrated her 5th birthday in Athens, Greece at our regional mission conference last month. She dined on delicious food we couldn't name, visited exciting historic sites and was serenaded and gifted by kind, generous European missionary families that we'd just met. It was certainly an extra-special birthday! And yet... what she really wanted for her birthday was simply to play with her cousins who live in Wyoming.
We had anticipated Christmas 2013 would be a tough season for us since we had never spent the holiday apart from either of our families. We sampled all the wonderful things that the typical Hungarian Christmas season has to offer and planned our own simple celebration at home. (To see Nora in our Hungarian Church's Christmas program, click here.)This celebration was then put on hold while we spent the morning hours online saying a final goodbye to a cherished relative in the ICU who was predicted to have just a few short hours to live. We longed to be "home", but where is that?
This nomadic life we've been called to is an amazing gift. We don't take for granted the things we see and try just 15 minutes from our house, the places we visit, the jobs we have or the people that have become our surrogate family. This life we lead can also be filled with weighty soul ache. We miss our family, friends, and the wind-swept land we love. We are absent from the births, the deaths, the first steps and the soccer games.It isn't just us, either. You probably don't live in the exact geographical location you would choose surrounded by all of the people you would like to be near. Everyone knows this soul ache at some time or another. I can't help but think how gracious it is of God to provide such a poignant reminder that this life is not our home. We shouldn't get too cozy here. The point of this life isn't our comfort, but our conformation to His will. One day when Jesus calls those of us who have surrendered to him to his side, then, and only then, will we truly be Home. Let that be our aim - to Seize Eternity!
“But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
Not sure what I mean when I say "surrendered to Jesus"? Check out this short video.
