Children on the move
14/10/20 00:17
The first time I moved was when I went away to college. My family lived in the same house for all of my growing up years. We did have a summer cabin, but the move to the riverside for the summer didn’t involve packing up a household or moving furniture. My move to college also didn’t involve moving furniture. My college dorm room was furnished. I moved clothing, a few books and a typewriter. One of the jokes that I used to say was that when I went to college three of us moved in my father’s Chevy Caryall. When I graduated from college it took three trips with the same vehicle. That isn’t quite accurate as I got married during my college years so there were two of us moving, but it is also true that I acquired a few things during my college years. My parents kept the same house for the rest of my father’s life and my mother sold that house and moved on only in the last decade or so of her life.
Because I had not moved as a child, there was a certain apprehension in my mind a bit over 35 years ago when we loaded up a U-Haul truck and headed out from Hettinger, North Dakota with our children who were 2 and 4 at the time. Everything we owned was in that truck, which was towing our car on a dolly and our suburban, which was towing a small trailer. I drove the truck, Susan drove the suburban for the first 300 miles. After an overnight with her parents, we continued with her father driving our suburban for the remaining 620 miles. There are many stories about that move. One of the images in my mind comes not from the trip with our belongings, but from the interview with the church that preceded that trip. As I stepped into the pulpit to deliver our candidate sermon in the church that called us, I looked up. At the rear of the sanctuary in a second story window was my daughter who was in a special room for parents of young children. They could look and listen to the service in the room below. I looked up at that 2 year old, who was waving to me, and I felt the weight of the decisions we were making. This little one would grow up with Boise, Idaho as her home town, not Hettinger, North Dakota. She would be a city girl, not a small town girl.
Those thoughts quickly faded as we embraced the decision we had made. As it turned out we lived in Boise for a decade and then accepted the call to move to Rapid City. So, at the ages of 12 and 14, we moved our children again. This time we hired the move and a large Allied Van Lines truck carried our family goods as we made the trip in our family cars. Years later or son said that the second move, when he was 14 had been hard. Being a freshman in high school is difficult. Being a freshman in a new school in a new town is a different challenge. However, he also said that it had been good because he learned to move from the experience. After graduating from high school, he went off to college in Forest Grove, Oregon. He moved from there to Los Angeles and then back to Rapid City briefly before going to graduate school in North Carolina. He was married in North Carolina and they moved diagonally across the continent to Olympia, Washington. In Washington they had two apartments before buying their first house. Then they moved to Mount Vernon, Washington where they rented briefly before buying a home. And now they are moving again. This will be the second move for all three of their children, who are aged 9, 6 and 3.
Our daughter is similarly mobile, having lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming; Billings, Montana; Rapid City; Lakenheath, England; Warrensburg, Missouri; and Misawa, Japan since graduating from high school. She and her family are planning to move in February. Her one year old son probably won’t remember the details of that move.
Children are remarkably adaptable and resilient. As long as they have the basics of love, food, a bed and a few toys they do well with moving from one place to another. Of course, when we moved with our children there were a lot of things that went along, including pets. We may be able to travel lightly on vacation, but when we pick up our household, it involves a lot of heavy lifting.
Today we load up the truck for yet another move. This time we are not moving with our children, but rather moving to be closer to our children and grandchildren. Still, it makes me think of the many children around the world who are making the move from one home to another. Some of those children don’t know where their home will be. They are fleeing violence and oppression and striking out, often for a whole new country, in search of a better life. Some of those children are following the careers of their parents, who are moving for better jobs and a higher standard of living. Some of those children are in families forced to move because of unemployment. There are many conditions of children on the move.
Great God, the beginnings of the stories of our people are stories of moving. For generations we told the story of our identity by telling of Abraham and Sarah setting out from the land of their forebears to a promised land. It took generations of moving - and sometimes decades of wandering - before our people entered that promised land and established their home there. Then they were carried off into exile. When we tell the stories of our people, we are always telling of how you inspired and sustained us in the midst of moving. Be with the children who are moving these days. May they find stability in the love of their families. May they discover what our people discovered so long ago, that you are wherever we go. There is no place where we can go that you are not also there. Remind us of the constant of your love in an ever-changing world. We pray in your holy name, Amen.
Because I had not moved as a child, there was a certain apprehension in my mind a bit over 35 years ago when we loaded up a U-Haul truck and headed out from Hettinger, North Dakota with our children who were 2 and 4 at the time. Everything we owned was in that truck, which was towing our car on a dolly and our suburban, which was towing a small trailer. I drove the truck, Susan drove the suburban for the first 300 miles. After an overnight with her parents, we continued with her father driving our suburban for the remaining 620 miles. There are many stories about that move. One of the images in my mind comes not from the trip with our belongings, but from the interview with the church that preceded that trip. As I stepped into the pulpit to deliver our candidate sermon in the church that called us, I looked up. At the rear of the sanctuary in a second story window was my daughter who was in a special room for parents of young children. They could look and listen to the service in the room below. I looked up at that 2 year old, who was waving to me, and I felt the weight of the decisions we were making. This little one would grow up with Boise, Idaho as her home town, not Hettinger, North Dakota. She would be a city girl, not a small town girl.
Those thoughts quickly faded as we embraced the decision we had made. As it turned out we lived in Boise for a decade and then accepted the call to move to Rapid City. So, at the ages of 12 and 14, we moved our children again. This time we hired the move and a large Allied Van Lines truck carried our family goods as we made the trip in our family cars. Years later or son said that the second move, when he was 14 had been hard. Being a freshman in high school is difficult. Being a freshman in a new school in a new town is a different challenge. However, he also said that it had been good because he learned to move from the experience. After graduating from high school, he went off to college in Forest Grove, Oregon. He moved from there to Los Angeles and then back to Rapid City briefly before going to graduate school in North Carolina. He was married in North Carolina and they moved diagonally across the continent to Olympia, Washington. In Washington they had two apartments before buying their first house. Then they moved to Mount Vernon, Washington where they rented briefly before buying a home. And now they are moving again. This will be the second move for all three of their children, who are aged 9, 6 and 3.
Our daughter is similarly mobile, having lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming; Billings, Montana; Rapid City; Lakenheath, England; Warrensburg, Missouri; and Misawa, Japan since graduating from high school. She and her family are planning to move in February. Her one year old son probably won’t remember the details of that move.
Children are remarkably adaptable and resilient. As long as they have the basics of love, food, a bed and a few toys they do well with moving from one place to another. Of course, when we moved with our children there were a lot of things that went along, including pets. We may be able to travel lightly on vacation, but when we pick up our household, it involves a lot of heavy lifting.
Today we load up the truck for yet another move. This time we are not moving with our children, but rather moving to be closer to our children and grandchildren. Still, it makes me think of the many children around the world who are making the move from one home to another. Some of those children don’t know where their home will be. They are fleeing violence and oppression and striking out, often for a whole new country, in search of a better life. Some of those children are following the careers of their parents, who are moving for better jobs and a higher standard of living. Some of those children are in families forced to move because of unemployment. There are many conditions of children on the move.
Great God, the beginnings of the stories of our people are stories of moving. For generations we told the story of our identity by telling of Abraham and Sarah setting out from the land of their forebears to a promised land. It took generations of moving - and sometimes decades of wandering - before our people entered that promised land and established their home there. Then they were carried off into exile. When we tell the stories of our people, we are always telling of how you inspired and sustained us in the midst of moving. Be with the children who are moving these days. May they find stability in the love of their families. May they discover what our people discovered so long ago, that you are wherever we go. There is no place where we can go that you are not also there. Remind us of the constant of your love in an ever-changing world. We pray in your holy name, Amen.
