Friends~family

  "I believe that we ought so to love and trust God in our lives, and in all good things that He sends us, that when the time comes (but not before!) we may go to Him with love, trust, and joy. But, to put it plainly, for a man in his wife's arms to be hankering after the other world is, in mild terms, a piece of bad taste, and not God's will. We ought to find and love God in what He actually gives us; if it pleases Him to allow us to enjoy some overwhelming earthly happiness, we mustn't try to be more pious than God himself and allow our happiness to be corrupted by presumption and arrogance, and by unbridled religious fantasy which is never satisfied with what God gives. God will see fit to it that the man who finds Him in his earthly happiness and thanks Him for it does not lack reminder that earthly things are transient, that it is good for him to attune his heart to what is eternal, and that sooner or later there will be times when he can say with all sincerity, 'I wish I were home.' But everything has its time, and the main thing is that  we keep step with God, and do not keep pressing on a few steps ahead- nor keep dawdling a step behind."*
 This was written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer when he was incarcerated by the Germans during World War Two. In the context of this passage he was talking about the longing he had for family that he had been separated from, and distance in relationships over time. It was also Christmas time when he was writing this to his friend Eberhard.  Bonhoeffer uses the verse from Ecc. 3:15 as comfort: "God seeks again what is past." God holds time, and the relationships we have, I was reminded of this today when thinking of this past week.
  Today is Tara and I's 15 year anniversary of marriage, and we are together with our family which is a blessing. On the other hand our family had friends that we have known for a year leave, and we will probably not see them for a long time. It is an emotional time for our family to see friends leave, but this verse is a comfort to know that God holds all those experiences (in some translations God seeks what has been driven away). This, I think, will especially get truer as we get older and our memory start to gray these vivid times that we are in now.
 It was exciting to get to know Tine, Patrick, and Dani, missionaries from Germany, this past year. We got to know their strengths and weaknesses and they truly became like family. We heard about their young heart's dreams, shared in their growing up, and enjoyed their energy and help. So after a year, a bond is forged due to their separation from the familiar of their family and friends, and our family had adopted more family. We got to see them grow in the Lord as well as a result of the closeness.
 The truth and greatness of God holding these relationships is that we can live and enjoy to the fullest right now even if it short or long term. Not to rush them on or linger behind; "so that when we are seized by a longing for the past- and this may happen when we least expect it- we may be sure that it is only one of the many 'hours' that God is always holding ready for us."*
  We are going to live to the fullest here in what the Lord has given us. A bit of sadness for the Germans leaving, joy for 15 years for marriage, and excitement for our church coming from Antioch in a couple of weeks; not wishing for any part of this pass to quickly.
 Thank you to all who pray and support us here, and all those people from around the world who's lives have intersected with our family.
 
 *Dietrich Bonhoeffer,  Letters & Papers From Prison, pp.168-169