Thus far, the Lord helped us.  (I Samuel 7:12).

I sit here at my little corner desk in my “tiny makeshift office” which is merely a corner of the living room.  I am enjoying spending a few moments of quiet time.  It seems I am drawn to thinking of what the year behind us has held thus far, and of what the next few months, as the New Year approaches, might hold.  I am encouraged and strengthened as I ponder on all that God has done and is doing in our life.

We have been empty nesters for nearly a decade now.  That in itself was a huge thing to get used to.  I had always worked full time over the years of raising our family, but there was something about coming home of an evening and having our two kids coming in and out that made all the hard work and time spent away from my home worth it all.  You see, having children was not a hardship for me.  I wanted them with every fiber of my being and I cherished the joy of being a mom.

As they each left home to forge lives of their own in this vast wilderness of life, I found that my heart was emptier than my nest.  Every phone call was treasured and the times when they came home for a day or a week were a something to be looked forward to and held as a gift beyond compare.  Of course, with spouses and children of their own, it is expected that their time with the “old folk” be less and less.  Such is the cycle of life.

Making the decision to sell our big old rambling home in Georgia has been one of the most difficult decisions I have faced in a long, long time.  You see, my home is somehow a reflection of me, and I poured myself into making that house a home for over ten years.  Each room was decorated to the personality of the room itself, and then I added my touch by way of pictures, nicknacks, furniture, bed coverings, etc.  While I know that the season of living in that place is done, it still has been difficult to let go and let the Lord show me the new direction we are now going in.  My mind is willing, but my heart is still sore from the letting go.

Jim has gone a new direction with his work in the past couple of years and is gone days, and sometimes weeks, at a time.  It is a joy to travel with him when time and finances allow, but it is also good to be at home resting in the Lord in these middle years.  While we hope, and plan, to have many more years together, we have learned that nothing is a given in this life.  We are trying to learn to treasure the little things, and each other, more and more.

Regardless of what we have gone through, this past year, the year before or even the ten years, or forty years before, the Lord is with us.  Through all the struggles – through the pain, the relationship issues, the loss of loved ones through death, divorce or misunderstandings, the loss of finances, loss of jobs, the loss of homes, the loss of health, or losses of all kinds, He is with us.

In the midst of our good times and our bad, our difficult times, our times of happiness and of joy, the Lord has helped us!

At our family place in Arkansas, there is a special little road, which runs across our property that I simply love.  This road has been there for as long as I have been alive, and even longer if history proves itself to be true.  Each season, and sometimes even weekly, or daily, depending on weather conditions, it changes.

In the fall, it is a place of beauty with the color of the leaves surrounding you; causing one to hold their breath with the glory of it all.  In the spring, it is filled with wildflowers, redbud trees and dogwoods.  The summer brings a cool green tunnel of trees nearly touching across the top of the little road.  And the winter. . . ahhhh the winter.  It is beautiful beyond mere mortal imagining as the pristine white snow lies softly on the branches of the pine trees, so dark a green as to appear nearly black.  The blue black shadows from the tall pines linger as the sun sets to the west. . . leaving a feeling of wonder, regardless of the time of year.

To me, this little road with its ever changing scene is simply a reflection of the Lord’s love for us and of His never-ending care of us regardless of the situations of life.  His love is always there, it is always the same and yet it reaches us right at our point of need.

Whatever the past has held for you, and certainly, whatever the future holds, He is there.  He will be our ever present help in time of need.  Of that, I am quite sure. . .