Changes.  Who likes them?  This morning I am reminded (yet again) of the uncomfortableness that comes with changes in my children’s lives.  Each change marks the end of an era… or the beginning of a new chapter – call it what you want.  There is a strange feeling that surrounds it all.  While I feel a sense of time slipping through my fingers (sometimes more intense and melancholy than others), I also feel a sense of pride and peace seeing them (kids) mature.

This morning Ethan heads off on his first serious hiking/camping trip without any family.  Sure, he’s going with a great group of guys; however, saying good bye this morning brought all these feelings to the surface.  I really enjoyed the sense of goodness that I felt as he descended down our stairwell with one of his buddies.

It is a strange feeling to hug your son and have his collar bone strike you in the cheek.  For some 18 odd years it was the other way around.  Having Chase sit down and talk with me, man to man, over a cup of coffee and a Jones soda is moving.  Meeting Mykaela for lunch and hearing about her work and life is powerful.  I can remember taking her to the airport the first time she went away to school.  She sat right behind me in the red van and sang along to an Avalon CD as if it were a regular day’s drive – for me it was the cataclysmic changing of my life – my first and oldest leaving the nest (I didn’t know that she would be back as she now is). 

I wonder how God must look at me?  Does my maturing strike him the same way the maturing of my children strikes me?  In the end, God has blessed my life with these people.  Blessed in ways in which no other human beings on this huge planet for all time ever will.  Imagine that – of the billions of people – no one else will be my sons and daughter.  Raising these people from children to young adults has been a great responsibility and I am profoundly thankful for it.  Never in a million years did I think I would have such a wonderful family, nor did I ever think I was ready for the responsibility – I guess that is where the wonder of God’s grace comes in and leaves me thankful.

On to the next chapter!