Places we love...

I just finished a wall project I've been working on for several months. I had the great idea to find vintage maps of our favorite places and frame them in a wall collage. Little did I know that finding maps from decades ago is not a task for the fainthearted.  I scoured thrift stores and antique stores. I searched EBay, Etsy and Pinterest.  Any Google map search was thoroughly exhausted.

Finally, a dealer at a local antique shop came through. He told me paper products do not make good booth products. Once handled, they tear and ruin. We talked about what I was trying to find and he promised to look through his home collection. I was excited when he called me back that same afternoon. I scored a 1911 vintage map atlas and a 1960 Upper Peninsula county road map for a reasonable price, given I was buying two books for only one page from each.

In the end, my hunt turned up an assortment of new and vintage maps, along with new and vintage frames and accessories. I am thrilled with the way our family room map collage looks.

 Reflecting on my family's favorite places made me realize the memories and vacation planning are almost as important as the actual places themselves.

Millecoquins Lake.

Negril.

Hilton Head Island.

Ocho Rios.

Wolverine.


All these places hold sweet memories.






But another place of distinction is simply, "HOME,"

Home. A place of love and acceptance. A place to feel safe and secure. The place we long to be after we've visited our favorite places. "Home" left me wondering. After we graduate from this world and leave our favorite place on earth, for which place will we long? We seldom talk about this place.

Heaven. Scripture tells us that this world is only our temporary home. So if this is my temporary home, am I planning for graduation day? Have I made the necessary arrangements for the place I long to be some day? My answer is a resounding, "Yes."

What about you? Jesus tells us the simplicity of following the road map and the way to make the arrangements in John 14, here from The Message:

14 1-4 “Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”
5 Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”
6-7 Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”

Oh the places they'll go...

Yesterday our youngest graduated from college. The day was filled with celebrations. Family lunch. Photos. Graduation ceremony. More photos. Family dinner.



Nothing brings back memories like a life event. The memory of a two year old climbing in the clothes dryer when mom was doing laundry. Memories of that same two year old helping Grandpa wash his car. The skinny kid with huge feet playing basketball like it was his job. Memories of family vacations spent with grandparents on both sides of our family.



Oh the memories.

And then the flood of emotions comes. The longing for a dad and grandpa to be present at graduation. The heart ache of missing hugs, untold stories and the absence of that familiar scent of cologne. And while my dad's been gone for nearly nine years, yesterday there was a tug in my heart and more than a few tears in my eyes.

And then, as if God wanted me to remember his promise, I turned to Matthew 22 where the Pharisees questioned Jesus about a woman married seven times. They asked whose wife she would be in heaven. Jesus replies with these words of promise:

"You don’t know your Bibles, and you don’t know how God works. At the resurrection we’re beyond marriage. As with the angels, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding your speculation on whether the dead are raised or not, don’t you read your Bibles? The grammar is clear: God says, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.’ The living God defines himself not as the God of dead men, but of the living.”

The promise of seeing my dad again one day brings joy to my heart and wipes away the tears of sadness. And so Dr. Seuss' book, "Oh the Places You'll Go" reminds me that the place that is promised for us as believers will be filled with great celebration. A home coming. A great reunion.

Congratulations, Barry. Grandpa would be so proud of you!