JB has a very sensitive spirit. Today my parents left to go back to Boston after visiting for a wonderful, rich week of both food and fun and meaningful times together...the best visit with them ever (it gets better every time and harder to say good bye each time as well). This is the last visit for them here in Oklahoma, at least at our current house. We have some great memories here as they have visited at Thanksgiving time three years in a row. This good-bye was especially hard leading up to it, so I tried to busy myself cleaning up to keep the tears from coming so early.
Hugging them good bye of course brought on the tears for all of us adults. The kids tend to go with the flow and had fun this time pushing the car as my Dad backed out and pushing it from behind as the my Dad pulled forward, of course, with my Dad honking the horn every once in a while to tease them. The kids then ran after the car yelling good bye. The kids and I went back inside, which is probably the second hardest part after watching them pull out because the emptiness of having them gone now fills my aching heart.
By the way, when Max leaves on a deployment and I'm sure when he leaves for the his year deployment (have never experienced that yet, thank God), the heart ache and emptiness is a bit different, but is also about 10 times worse. It's hard to quantify, but I know when my other half leaves, since we are one, it feels as though a part of me is being ripped away. In about 7 months, saying goodbye to him for a year, I think my heart might explode or sink to the bottom of my toes, I'm not really sure...but I know that God will pull me through it no matter what and I take comfort in Jesus.
Sorry, a little detour there, but missing my parents is bittersweet, whereas missing my husband, especially when he first leaves, is basically just bitter, anticipating a year of physical separation. The sweet part is experiencing Jesus' comfort as well as getting closer to the time that he will be back. This brings me to the sweet part of my parents' leaving, which comes through God using my children to comfort me.
I was sitting on my bed after my parents left, reading a note that my Dad put on our bed, of course with tears streaming down my face, and JB came in and asked what was wrong and I told him that I just miss my parents and it makes me sad because I don't see them very often. JB then asked what he could do to cheer me up. I thought that was very sweet and told him to give me a hug. Then he asked what he do to comfort me now. I told him I would love to read to him to get my mind off of my parents leaving. He left the room with a smile saying that he had the perfect book. He brought back his
Action Bible and said "I think this will cheer you up." We sat on the bed again and he opened it to the story of Ruth and Naomi and Boaz as Ruth's kinsman redeemer. Now talk about a story (a true story at that!) going from bitter to sweet for everyone involved!
After reading that JB made a very astute analogy (he's his Fathers' son); he told me he chose that one because the men in Naomi and Ruth's life had died and while my parents had left, they had not died, they just went away for a time. What perspective and yes, joy, that brings when an eight-year-old (our own first-born son) reminds me that parting is sweet sorrow, but temporary for those who 1) have not died in the physical sense and will see each other again on this earth, but more importantly 2) are believers in Christ Jesus and will never be eternally separated because we have a common Savior, the only Savior, our Redeemer.
