It's Over, but Not Really

Today is a bit of a jarring day for us Kruggel's. We suppose it's that way for many. All of the anticipation, all of the hoopla, all of the fanfare, all of the excitement, all of the togetherness, all of the laughter, all of the coziness, and all of the family that gathers and gathered around our Holidays are gone. They're over. A very, very early morning rise, drive and drop-off at the airport for Austin & Meagan moments ago poignantly signaled the end of it. And now with sorrowful hearts we all go back to the familiar. For Willow, it's a house with a lot fewer siblings to tickle and throw her over their shoulders, not to mention that her best friend and big sister Poppy heads out for school for 3 and 1/2 hours a day (this morning, she asked her Mommy, "When's Poppy coming home?"). For Poppy, it's back to kindergarten and coming home to fewer voices that will say "Hi, my little Pop-Tart". For Piper, it's heading off to Junior High, pounding through mounds of homework (all in English, mind you) and having fewer of those that care for her most lovingly jab at her English while she lovingly jabs at our dozen or so sorry Mandarin sayings. For Barret, the tenderness of tradition and sentimentality of the season is now a memory, and the pressures of peers, the future and a workload will weigh heavy upon him. For Annie, she now heads into one of her last and most difficult quarters of collegiate studies, constantly thinking of all the requirements while at the same time wondering what her life after college might hold. For Meagan, it's the search for rewarding investments of her Creator crafted gifts and separation from her best of California friends. For Austin, it's the tearing away from family, and also friends, asking God to give him a clear vision for his and Meagan's future. For Victoria, it's the motherly load of physically, but even more so mentally, caring for all her chicks regardless of whether they live in the nest or not. And for Tom, it's the continuation of "bringing home the bacon" and walking through a door at the conclusion of a long day to a quieter household, even though a half dozen seems like a lot but now really isn't.

It all sounds so negative, but really it isn't. Today and its varied emotions are yet another reminder that God fearfully and wonderfully made us. So much so that we need each other and the comforts of family and the familiar, just as our Lord, Jesus and the Spirit have always had the familial of one another. What was it like for God to be separated from His Son, and for Jesus to be separated from His Father while incarnate? In a very real sense they were not apart, but yet in another they were. Why, Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father. You can't get much closer than that. But He wasn't sitting there while walking the earth those 33-plus years. Did He feel back then what we feel today? Did He long to be reunited, never to be separated again? We suspect He did. In fact, the Bible tells us so.

There's something about knowing that the One who loves us most felt what we feel most today, and there's comfort in that. There's also comfort in knowing that it ought not be this way, and that there will be a day when it will be like this no more. So, today, we give thanks for what we had with our children over the last two weeks, and we give thanks for what we feel right now, and we give thanks that we won't always have to feel this way.

Longing to be reunited, once and for all,