Joy in the Journey

All last week we were expecting our travel approval to come. I had started to get that slighly crazy feeling I had when we were waiting for Gwen's referral... not quite that intense, but getting there. I was not well last week, had a cough and cold... the "seasonal crud", the doctor called it. That kind of added to my unrest.

But Thursday afternoon we went to the woods. Lake Patterson, a smallish manmade lake and wooded area, is just down the road from our house. After lunch I suggested to the kids that we go over there for half an hour to collect some leaves. Well, we got not a hundred yards into the woods, and we were entranced. There was no way we were getting out of there in thirty minutes. It was SO lovely. First of all, the weather was absolutely ideal that day. Right around 70 degrees, with a light breeze and clear blue sky. And the woods... well, the ground was covered in yellow leaves in every shade and shape. And the sticks... well, let me just say that all manner of things were created and pretended with the sticks and fallen logs that we found. At one point when the kids were so happily playing, I just laid flat on my back in the leaves and looked up at the branches and sky and thought how I wouldn't want to be anywhere else at that moment, than revelling in what God made on that golden day and listening to the happy sounds of my children's voices. My one sadness was that Scott was not with us, but instead diligently working downtown, INSIDE, on that perfect day, so that we could be where we were, OUTSIDE. I began to pray for him, that God would give him joy in what he was doing.


The JOY part of my prayer reminded me of a song that Michael Card sings, a song that Scott and I sang a long time ago at our dear friends Bill & Rebecca's wedding, back when we were all Very Young. Perhaps you know it...

There is a joy in the journey
There's a Light we can love on the way.
There is a wonder and wildness to life.
And freedom for those who obey.

There's more to it, of course, and it is a lovely, thoughtful song that applies to our lives in so many ways. But for that moment, it reminded me that the joy will not just be in Getting Gwen. The joy is here and now, in the journey that is our life. Not just in waiting for her, in anticipating all that her coming will mean to our family, but in the Now. It's in what I already have been given, like the golden day in the woods and a husband who finds joy in working so that I can have the freedom to take my children to the woods. It's joy in Madelyn's loose tooth. Joy in the Waltmires new little girl, Julia. Joy in my sweet friend Rebecca's weekend visit. It's joy in serving others in our small group.

But mostly, it's joy in knowing Him.