Saturday, November 5, 2016

New Canaan, Connecticut

There's No Place Like Home




     As we have moved around this great nation over our years as a family, we have been blessed to call a number of very different places "Home."  Let's be honest, these places were all beautiful in their own ways, and each locale has had its own set of blessings and challenges as we have answered our call.  
     This blog, like so many of my passions, has been neglected during the moving process because every moment of every day I get lost.  I get lost as I travel from our stunning new home of New Canaan, CT and drive 47 1/2 minutes to teach in the most resilient and faith-filled community of Newtown.  I get lost in despair when I long for my friends and family in Nebraska and across the Midwest.  I get lost as I sit in the back of a Bible Study group of 25, and this list goes on and on, but every now and then, the sun breaks through the clouds, and I see a glimpse of purpose.
    
  The other day, I had Luke and Leia outside.  Our new neighbors spotted me, let out a squeal and began climbing over the stone wall that divides our property in order to greet me.  "It is so nice to finally meet you," my new neighbor gushed.  "We are so happy to see life and light in the parsonage each night.  There was only darkness for so long.  Thank you."  Although I am sure that they were confused why this made me cry, I guess that's what we're all called to do in the places where God calls us to serve, right?  We are called to be Light and Love to others.  Miep Gies said it best in the film Freedom Writers, "...But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room."  Welcome home.