Endings...

This picture was taken the last day of school 2 years ago...the last day my boys ever went to their beloved NCCA school...that was a tough ending of a wonderful era for our family.

Why are endings so sad and melancholic? I don’t know…they just are…I think it has to do with the fact that they remind us of the frailty of life. They remind us that everything is finite…and we don’t like to think on those terms. We get attached to things, places, animals…people…ideas…and when they end, they leave a great void that it’s hard/impossible to fill. Even if it is the end of something bad we sort of mourn…we mourn for the time wasted, for the suffering we went through, for the familiarity of it all…and we fear the beginning of a new way of doing things.

I don’t know why I’m thinking of all these today…perhaps it is the fact that the school year just ended a couple of days ago taking away more and more of my boys' childhood. Perhaps it is the fact that I’m sitting at my old church’s parking lot…alone…Perhaps it is that the breeze reminds me of home…of the home where I grew up...the home that always kept me safe…the home that is no more. Perhaps it is that this empty parking lot reminds me of all the things I’ve left behind…of all the things I’ve lost.

This quiet, beautiful, warm summer afternoon speaks of goodbyes and faded smiles…and of voices I can hardly recall…

But if I listen intently, it also whispers of hope…and it comes in a song that says:

“You’ve got to believe that the story is so far from over…so hold on to every promise God has made to us and watch the glorious unfolding” (The glorious unfolding by Steven Curtis Chapman).

I’m ready for My King. I’m ready for the Groom to come down the road.

Only You can wipe away the tears from our eyes and restore our souls forever. Only You can bring the peace like a river, calm our fears and vanish our despair.

Like the bride waiting for the Groom…I wait…and when You finally come, there will be no end…no melancholic goodbyes…no sad memories that make me long for a past that is irreversibly gone.

Come Lord Jesus, come…