The Already and the Not Yet

My husband and I were recently discussing vacation plans for this year, and realizing all the limitations we were bumping up against.  Quebec City?  The kids don't have passports yet.  The Gulf of Mexico?  Our car isn't reliable enough, and have you seen rental car prices lately?*  Utah?  Have you seen flight prices lately?**  Also, there's the unknown of my Dad's condition. We know how he is now.  But how will he be in three months? In six?  We need to stay flexible. My husband will be extremely busy at work this summer.  And both our children will be enrolled in classes next year, so there's that factor: they'll have a more traditional school schedule starting in late August. And, finally, I am already doing lots of traveling back and forth to Charleston. So. We wait. We decided to probably take a "staycation" here in late August, and just see how everything unfolds.  

{my dad's senior portrait!}

We have been in this place before, and I think it's a place of growth.  I do not believe that it's spiritually healthy to be always able to choose what you want to do, all the time.  I have seen this before in times of uncertainty, and I know we will see it again and again: the unique grace of dwelling in the unknown spaces.  It brings to mind the idea of living in the already, but the not yet.  That is a place of faith all believers have to dwell in at various points in life, and my own experience is that it's the place of good, hard growth.  The pruning and the waiting and the believing.  

{spending a late winter day up on the mountain my in-laws own--that's my father-in-law as guide!}

God provides what we need, when we need it.  He goes before us to pave the way.  This has always been the case.  

{sunset at home}

So as badly as I'd like to go Somewhere New and get some wind in my sails, I feel called to contentment in this season of waiting. And I do see what God is doing in all our hearts.  He's making room for the unknown.  He's cultivating faith in us that all things do work for good.  He's turning our minds and hearts to Him: reminding us that life will happen the way He plans it, in His time.  

{quilt top I found in my other grandmother's attic}

So we are devoting ourselves to living well here in the already, and hoping for good and beautiful things in the not yet.  

*This is due to the current car shortage.

**This is due to the extraordinary price of fuel!