and while we are very excited about our new phase of life, leaving the place we called "home" these past 9 years was tinged with some emotion as one might expect.
when i was sweeping the house for the last time, one such moment happened in my daughter's room. tears formed at the corners of my eyes as i remembered this place. amia had learned to sleep in this room. i had rocked her and read to her hundreds of times in this place. i'd watched her crawl and wrestle with daddy, and i had played endless hours of "baby talk". she loved this room. i did too.
i stopped sweeping for a minute. i blinked back the tears as i prayed, "i know it doesn't matter, Lord. we can make memories and special places any place we go. i know this is just a building and place doesn't matter."
then all at once a knowing came over me: place does matter.
it mattered to lot when he lived in sodom. it mattered to ruth's livelihood whose field she gleaned from in bethlehem. it mattered to the unbelievers in macedonia where Paul traveled. it mattered to naaman's health which river he went to for healing. it mattered to the future of joseph's family and ultimately an entire nation that joseph went to egypt. it mattered to believers everywhere that Jesus was born in bethlehem.
place does matter.
we really don't know where we are supposed to be going, but i felt in that moment the need to not linger in this place and continue to call it "home".
i wonder if abraham had similar emotions when God told him to get up and go to a mystery place in genesis 12. i don't know, but i absolutely love that right after God tells Abraham to go in verses 1-3 verse 4 says, "so abraham went..."
let our confidence be as abraham's.
“So Abraham went, as the Lord had told him." Genesis 12:4