Times of Transition

We are in a time of transition.  In a few weeks, we will be listing our home of fourteen years for sale.  We built this house when our first child was eighteen months old.  It's the house we thought we would retire in.  It's the house where we built our family.  It's a bittersweet time, but it's necessary.

For the past several years my husband has been driving an hour-and-a-half each way for work.  That's three hours of driving a day.  It's too much for both of us.  He leaves the house before the kids wake and often returns after they are asleep, only to get up and do it all over the next day.  He's exhausted. 

So am I.  Being a mom is hard.  Being a mom to several special needs kids is back-breaking.  Especially when you're doing most of the work alone. 

Right now we're spending every spare moment decluttering our house, making minor repairs, painting rooms, putting down fresh mulch, and packing.  It's amazing how much there is to do.  It's amazing how much junk we've held on to, things we thought were important until faced with the thought of hauling all of it with us to a new home. Our family is big.  We have a LOT of junk! 


Right now I feel neither here nor there.  Our current home is a mess.  There are boxes everywhere.  The walls are dotted with spackle.  (It's amazing how much damage one eleven-year-old boy racing around the house in a wheelchair can do!)  Bags full of clothes to donate line the hall.  It's like we're not really living here any more. 

But we don't have a new home yet, so we're not living there either.  Our plan is to find a place in the country with several acres.  I've always wanted to farm, and that's our (my!) goal. So while I'm sad about leaving our current home; I'm excited about where we are headed.  But we're not there yet.  We are in between, and it's uncomfortable. 

As I thought about this in between time, I realized that Christ spent His entire life in transition.  He had come from Heaven to Earth and was headed back.  He was between.  He was born into the Old Testament time but brought us grace and the New Testament.  He was alive but waiting to die.  He loved the people around Him, but He must have been longing for Heaven. 

Between.  It must have been bittersweet for Him.  Good behind Him.  Good in front of Him.  A mess in the middle. 

But look what He accomplished in the middle of the mess.  Yes, He is God.  But He was also fully human.  He trusted the Father while He was in the middle, and He changed the world. 

Now I'm not suggesting that our move will change anyone's world but our own.  But I'm looking to Christ to see how I should handle our time of transition.  The house we are in now was Good.  I know the place we end up in will also be Good.  So I can rest in the middle knowing that Christ understands transitions.  Because I trust Him, I can walk in grace the way the He did.  After all, if God loves the sparrow, He certainly loves me. 

P.S. -- I will be chronicling our move (and new farm lifestyle) on my YouTube channel.

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