While You Were Away...I Grew Up

Dear Tommy,
You will come home today.  I will be so happy to see you.
While you were away, I grew up.  I grew stronger.  My time with God was sweeter as I prayed for you to be effective in a strange land for His glory and kingdom.  It isn't that I don't pray for you when you are here. I do.  But then you come home every day and we have our evenings together, even if we are busy. This was different.  We have not been apart this long since you were in the Navy and that was 42 years ago.  So yes, it was different.
God put me in a situation where you were unreachable on the very day I needed you most.  He planned that.  His word says His grace is sufficient.  He promised that He is with me always. My heart and eyes were towards Him and His faithfulness and mercy made me stronger.  So often, I pass my worries and cares to you, knowing you will handle them. This time, He removed you from the equation and forced me to look only unto Him...and my faith grew. He alone sustained me.
Though I have not seen you yet, I know you will be changed by all that happened in Africa.  I am changed by what happened here, too.
2 Corinthians 4:6-10  For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 
Today I went to the funeral of a man who spent time in our home when our boys were in high school and college.  My mind was flooded with memories of of these kids who came and went through our front door like a swarm of bees looking for a hive.  Some of them were there and they hugged and greeted me.  How did we get to be this age? How did these kids become mommies and daddies?
Life is so very short.  What we do matters.  Every day matters. If we could only remember that. So, today I will pick you up at the airport and our journey will be one again.  Praising God for these days apart...but never alone. xoxoxo