Moves Should Be Long and Slow

The best meal that I ever had was at a four or five star restaurant in St. Maarten during my honeymoon. I had the most exquisite Argentinian steak and the perfect glass of wine to match. To be sure, the food was great, but I think of this now and understand that the food was just part of the overall atmosphere. We ate slowly, Carrie and I, savoring the magnificent fare before us. We were not on a schedule; we did not feel the anxiety of a wait staff hungry for the tips that would come with a new customer. There was no pressure but to enjoy the food and, above all, each other.

I say all this because I am realizing again just how emotionally jarring family moves can be; realizing, perhaps, that they do not have to be so jarring.

I am pictured here taking apart the cradle that we had purchased and stained prior to our second child's arrival. I was in a hurry to take it apart and put it into its moving box so that I could get to other things. Then God intervened. I realized that I would probably never see this piece of furniture together again. I was rushing through my packing job like I would rush through the drive-through lane at a fast food restaurant. What I should have done is invite the children down to help me, and talk to them about when they slept in it, where we lived, etc. In that way the move could have been a blessed family time, as it would have led to other discussions about the way God has guided us in our past, and how He will do so in the future. Instead, the cradle was almost completely apart when, by God's grace, I was permitted a moment of insight. Thankfully interrupted, I went upstairs and invited the firstborn to come down and take a picture of her dad taking apart a piece of furniture.

It would be nice if we had a month or two to do this; that is, it would be a blessing for a move to be sacred time, a time to pause and remember how we got to where we are, to make of the sorting of artifacts a time of growth and renewal. Instead, moving time is mostly busy and physically efficient, with the occasional flicker of grace and insight. I am thankful for that latter moment now, thankful for the years of grace behind us that make a great foundation for what is ahead...