Re-Rooting

 

         My husband and I have traveled around the country for years.  It wasn’t until my husband worked in a job for many years and we were financially able, that we began traveling regularly; taking a two or occasional three-week vacation every year.  Our children enjoyed the fruit of our travels and all can now say they have been in every state in the Continental United States.  That said, our youngest of five has only minimal memories of many of those places we visited. 

What all the traveling did, however, was create a thirst to continue to visit other places.  But, as we’ve gotten older, we’ve discovered our health (and now the price of fuel), among other rising costs, deters the traveling we once enjoyed.

I also discovered the one thing I really missed, when traveling, was being involved in our church—and our church family.  There is something uniquely comforting about having a body of Believers who share my faith and are willing to sacrifice some of their time and talents to make us feel like family day in and day out; and knowing that we’d do the same for them.

There are times, however, when circumstances requires us to move from one area of the country to another; sometimes even to a new country.  This can be beyond stressful and disconcerting when you find yourself in a new environment, perhaps culture, new home and church, new job, learning new faces, and so many other unknowns in re-settling.

Military families find their lives uprooted all the time; and the children within these families usually learn to adjust, just because they must.  My one daughter fit this category until her husband retired and then they moved across the country with the plan to live a much slower pace in life.  It didn’t quite work out like they expected since they are very much involved in their ‘homesteading’ lifestyle, but also within the community and 4-H, and love it.

Another of my children moved West after he finished college.  He married and now has a family out there.  Another daughter lives in the northern states, and one son in the South, while we remain in the East, with only one of our children in the area.  

So this often raises the question of where we ‘should be.’  As time passes we find ourselves comfortable, but also wonder what other places would be like, to actually ‘live’.  Sometimes we find ourselves asking ourselves ‘Would we be ready and willing to make such a drastic move so far away from where we’ve lived all our lives?  Are we willing to uproot ourselves from all we know and people we’ve grown to care about?”  Is traveling still our best option, without putting down new ‘roots’ elsewhere?’

God will call us sometimes, to relocate even if we are not immediately willing.  There is a job to do, with the talents he’s given us, in places with people we don’t know.  But it can be scary to walk away when we are so comfortable where we are.  If we can remember that God’s presence is with us no matter where he sends us or what he has given us to do, we can successfully place our roots into the area around us, and begin to grow in ways we hadn’t imagined.

When this happens, the best we can do is keep our roots planted in God and let Him re-root and continue to 'grow us'!

Photo credit: free pictures of roots