holidays are funny things. i remember so many fun times from my childhood revolving around holidays. the excitement and anticipation of christmas and the hunt for treasure on easter and the dressing up for halloween.
one of my favorites was memorial and labor day. the family, along with a ton of other people, would load up in the van and make our way to fort desoto. a beach with a fort…come on! as a kid it doesn’t get much better. we would spend the day in the sun, playing on the fort and in the water. eating good food, laughing many a laughs. good times!
as an adult, i feel like the fun memories are fewer and farther between. not because there haven’t been good things. but it is much different. i have lived on my own for over 10 years now. i have lived away from my family for about 9 of them. rarely was i close to do holidays with them and if i was it was only christmas or thanksgiving.
the Lord has always provided people but i often felt like an after thought. people have families and they are doing stuff with them. people have traditions and unfortunately, i think our culture has lost the knowing how of including people well. as we spread out and get further from family, something shifts within us.
this year has been different. it first happened on easter. it was the first holiday in my adult years, away from my family of course, that i didn’t feel like an after thought. that i was a part of something on a given holiday. and then there was memorial day. God has been moving and knitting me into community that is different than i have ever experienced before. it is incredible.
the community i have now is the kind that includes me from the get go. the kind where i am not an after though. the kind that runs errands together and sits at each others’ houses while working, just to be around each other. it the community that calls me out and appreciates (as much as possible) being called out. and it is surreal.
and all of it points to the glory of God. all of it points to His goodness. it reminds me of who He is and what He is capable of. it makes me long for Heaven where every said desire that He is giving me a glimpse of will be met in an even greater capacity! He is so good! those blessings and gifts should point us to Him instead of pull us away from Him.