A Holiday By The Sea

If you've been following the blog or my family on social media over the last few months, you may remember that my brother Adam left us to be with Jesus in May.  It was not exactly a surprise, but it was unexpected and caught us all off guard.  We began this summer with the worst storm of our lives.  After his death, we sheltered at my parents' house for almost ten days: we slept, ate, cried, and tried to breathe together.  It was excruciating, but somehow bearable because we were together, and because of the hope of heaven.

It is fitting that during the last week of the summer (Sara, Robin, Andrew, and I all start back to our regular school schedules this week), we got away together again, this time to Oak Island, NC.  A family friend graciously offered us a place to stay to spend some time together and it was such a blessing.

Josh cooked every day.  We collected shells and jumped waves and colored in coloring books.  Hardly anyone got sunburned (sorry, Robin).  We talked and laughed and had a dance party.  Gracie celebrated her first birthday with a cookie with a candle in it and about a million choruses of Happy Birthday.  We watched Moana.  A lot.  And we sang Moana songs at the top of our lungs in the car, on the beach, and inside when it rained.  We watched baby sea turtles crawl to the ocean from their nest.  We found peace and joy in each other and in God's world, even if not quite complete.  ​ It was an echo of heaven.  It made me cry to leave.

I so want for the world to be like this.  My soul aches for this, for heaven, for healing.  I am so thankful that Adam is there, experiencing rest he so desperately needed.  For him, as Aslan says in The Last Battle, "the term is over: the holidays have begun."