Times like these are why God invented waterproof mascara.
Ten years is a long time. It's enough time to really get to know people. It's enough time to grow best friends. It's enough time for those friends to become like family. Apparently God is saying that ten years is enough time. Yesterday our best friends moved away.
I keep thinking about all the things that have happened in those ten years. When we first met Bill and Natalie, we had two toddlers and a baby girl. They were newlyweds. They had just moved to town to be the youth pastors at our church. We were invited to their apartment for tacos and they asked us if we wanted to serve alongside them. That night began a journey that I don't even have words for.
We were a part of their lives when they had their first child, a scary, life threatening ordeal. And we watched again when their daughter was born not too much later. We've dreamed together and served beside each other. They have been here to share in the joy of five of our kids being born. There have been countless dinners shared, countless laughs over dessert and coffee, countess hugs and tears. There have been nights of crying out to God together in prayer, early morning breakfasts, and hours sitting beside each other in the sun at the pool.
In the ten years they lived here, they moved about five times but it was always just across town or to another apartment and then finally into their own house. This time though, as we packed the boxes, it was for good. Those boxes will be unpacked in another state. And we won't be there to help.
Of course our friendship doesn't end here. Of course we are excited for them and for what God has in store for them. But that doesn't mean we aren't going to mourn the phase of life that is ending.
I thank God that He allows us to love so deeply and to become such a part of each others' hearts.
It just makes it very difficult to say good bye.
9 comments:
remember the days when we would meet at my house EARLY for breakfast and prayer?
there are so many memories. I'm really going to miss them.
dang.
Oh my gosh, I remember that. Haleigh would come through the kitchen on her way to early morning practice of some kind at the junior high. Wow. That was a long time ago.
It's always hard to say goodbye to great friends...may you see each other again soon.
Hey...been thinking about you guys, saying goodbye is so tough. What an amazing friendship He has blessed you with, praying that this new phase of it will be just as great.
Think of how much fun Heaven is gonna be...everybody in their own mansions hanging out together ;)
Last night it was the kitchen table shot on your facebook that left me speechless.. this morning this post. Did Paul morn his relationships this heartfelt. Knowing that God's purposes outweighed his heartbreak? This crazy group has formed our family into who it is and will forever be changed and shaped by you guys.
Good-byes never get any easier. God truly has always blessed me in every season with friends who become family. Now we all live many miles apart, but the God connections still remain.
I hope it can be a while before you have to go through this again. :-) Love you, Heth.
I'm sorry your friends are moving. Our best friends moved away a few years ago. That move proved to be the undoing of their relationship and it was so, so hard to watch it from afar and not be able to just drop everything and hug my friend when she needed it. But I am still so thankful for their friendship and their presence in our lives at that time. Despite their life changes, they are still blessings to us and I hope we are blessings to them.
I'm sorry, Heather. That stinks. Isn't it great that in heaven we will all be together and never be parted?
I don't know how I missed this post. Sad. And yet, like you mention, you want the best for them. It's hard not thinking the best is for them to stay close.
I hate good-byes. They seem such an unkind friend. Lonely. And you know what? Your kids will do it too. They will move out of your home. And it is hard. But deep in your heart, you know it is a good thing. But it is hard.
I'm glad we have technology-it keeps people connected wherever they go in life.
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