The Parenting Pilgrimage

It is the day after we took our last child to the airport to begin her adult journey.  The completion of 31 years of raising 6 children & my husband & I are back to the 2 of us.  We love each other & know God intimately,  but we are feeling very lost.  Maybe you can relate to our very human, universal struggle

God, you are with us on our journey; this sacred pilgrimage that we are walking.  We listen today for your voice to lead us in our darkness.  Saying "goodbye" to the life we have known for so long, choosing to trust in the darkness; reaching for your hand; wishing we could see the rays of the morning sun. But in this moment, we are surrounded by the darkness of night. Sometimes you find yourself in the night and there’s nothing you can do about it but hold God’s hand and trust in his promises, watching for the dawn that will come after the night has passed.

There are dark times in life.  Hardships & pain no matter how pleasant your journey.  Pilgrimages have rocky places, slanted paths, rainstorms, times when you leave one place on your way to another and you can’t see the next place yet.  You think you see a faint path & you hope & trust that you are on it.  You hope that the next city is as beautiful as the one you just left.  You hope that the people you meet will be as wonderful as the ones you just left behind.

It was time to go.  Your stay there was done. Others, coming after you, are needing the space that you occupied.  Nothing was wrong with that place.  It was just time to leave & there are other places on your journey that you need to get to.  Others who have gone before you encourage you not to miss what is ahead.  To you it doesn’t look like much.  You like the city you were in & would have liked to stay a while longer; maybe never leave at all.  What would have been wrong with staying in that place for the rest of your days?  It was beautiful, meaningful, & you were useful there.

But what about those waiting for you in the cities ahead?  What about the callings that are ahead that you’ll never experience if you refuse to get back on the path?

Maybe, if you did stay longer in this city, things wouldn’t be as you imagine; everything wonderful and full of life, you at your happiest.  Things would grow stale; like a field after the harvest.  The grasses brown & die. It is time for the foliage to return & replenish the ground. Your time is complete. The grace is gone for that part of your journey.

We are tired.  Thinking about strapping on our sandals to hit the path again, thinking about beginning the next part of the trail, an undetermined number of miles ahead, possible hardships in traveling to the next city.  Imagining arriving & the effort of establishing yourself in a new place with different people and customs.  It seems like a lot of work from where you are sitting.  We have started over so many times; pushed so hard all of our days. Do we have to keep moving on?

Yes. You can take a few days to rest but if you stay too long, you will grow disappointed & empty.  Don't worry; soon your strength will come & you will get up & say, “All right, I’m ready.  I have traveled so long with you my Guide, I know from my past that good is right around the corner.  I’m tired right now.  I might not say too much at first our first few miles of the journey but I will put one foot in front of the other & thank you for your help & tenderness."

Before I know it we will begin receiving along the way. We will come across divinely appointed other travelers.  We will enjoy their company & our lives will again feel surrounded by blessing.  We will see new vistas & beauty along the path and on the high overlooks.  Eventually we may get a glimpse of the city ahead & hope & anticipation will spark within us.  The place that we left will never leave us.  The friends that we met there are not gone from our lives and may even cross our paths again with magnificent new dimensions to our relationships. We will each have more to bring because we have traveled in and out and back & forth again.  

This is not the end of living but a new beginning.  A vista of new adventure in front of us instead of behind.  We will see it shortly.  But for now, walking is enough, every step drawing us closer.  Let the new wonders begin.