The View from the Summit

Today I got up extra early knowing I would need lots of quiet time and prayer to prepare myself for the day ahead.  Because today I packed my youngest child off to college.  Anyone who knows me has been dreading my reaction to this day.

There is something about your youngest.  They are born having to share everything.  They have never been the first, or the only.  They are never the trailblazer- the oldest has always done everything first.  They even end up with fewer photos in the baby album if they get one at all!  And yet, they seem to bear it all with great equanimity.  Having no other reference point, they accept their status as normal and they manage to thrive anyway.  My youngest son was the one who always stuck to me like glue when he was little, and as he grew up, he was my buddy.  These past 2 years with his older brother away at college and his dad often traveling for work, we lived quietly and harmoniously for the most part.  I found myself taking a deep breath last year around this time....Senior year.  The beginning of the end....  Then today.....the end of an era.

Fortunately, God has been equipping me for this day.  As I do nearly every morning lately, I got up early to read, study and pray. I gave myself lots of extra time today knowing I would need it.  This is a part of my devotional reading today from Max Lucado's "Grace for the Moment": 

 "You've turned your back on the noise and sought his voice.  You've stepped away from the masses and followed the Master as he led you up the winding path to the summit.  Just remember, he confides- you'll go nowhere tomorrow that I haven't already been.  Truth will triumph.  The victory is yours.  The sacred summit.  A place of permanence in a world of transition".  

I read those last two lines over and over.  I let them wash over me and then through me.  I felt their undeniable truth.  That through all of life's difficult transitions, He is there.  Though He leads us up rocky paths when we choose to follow, there is always a view from the summit at the top.  A place of permanence in a world of transition.  How perfect are those words for a mother facing the transition of the empty nest? I never fail to be awed by the way just the right words seem to come when we most need them.  Thank you, God of Grace......Shalom