Even though my house is full, I am very aware of those who are missing…my sons. Thankfully, we were able to see our oldest son and his wife over the weekend, but our younger son serves in the military and we haven’t seen or talked to him in a while. He let us know on Sunday that he is fine and that we’ll hear more in a couple of days, but having seen the other 3/4 of our kids this week, I am feeling his absence.
Each one of our children is unique, aren’t they? Even if they are close in age, and raised under very similar circumstances, each one has his or her unique DNA, unique expression of that DNA, unique self. And when all of that uniqueness combines, it is magical. I often say that dinner with our whole family is not for the faint of heart. It is a fast-paced, laughter-filled, exchange of information that few can track for any length of time. You kind of have to grow into it.
Spending time with any one of our children, or any particular combination of two or three or more is a blessing. And each combination is different — the oldest alone, the older two together, the youngest alone, the younger two together, the middles together, the boys together, the girls together — and fabulous in its own way. Each solo or combination is like a favorite song — I love to hear it and want to play it over and over.
But of all my favorite songs, my favorite-favorite is the song of all of my kids together under one roof, making all their particular sounds together.
I imagine that is what heaven will be like for God. He will have us all together — all ages, genders, races, ethnicities, socio-economic statuses — and he will rejoice to hear us all together.
And just like I am thinking about the one I am missing, even while the others are with me, God pursues those who are missing, and desires them to come home and be under His roof, joining in his favorite-favorite song.
For this reasons, He is likely to ‘leave the ninety-nine, and go in search of the one.’ He loves each one. I am one. You are one.
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OH! This is SO very true. You hit it EXACTLY! The various combinations of siblings is always so much fun to sit back and watch, especially as they grow older and have created their OWN memories to share. (and are your children like ours? They are finally deciding that enough time has passed for them to tell us some adventures that we had NO IDEA about, LOL!) As much as we enjoy it when one or two of them visit, you are right…there is absolutely NOTHING that compares to having everyone home, under one roof. Thanks for sharing.
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