Fall is progressing with alarming speed. In one short week, the green underbrush along our gravel road has developed a yellow cast. The ditches are clogged with leaves, and on warm days the Asian beetles, homeless since the farmers harvested the soybeans, are everywhere.
Change is in the air, and I don’t like it. The worst change of all was a recent announcement by a couple we’ve grown close to in the past five years. He’s accepted a job in Texas and will be moving within the month. She’ll finish out the school year and join him next spring. My head knows this is a necessary move for them. Circumstances leave no doubt of God’s hand in these events.
But my heart is shouting, “Don’t go, don’t go,” to this couple who have been an example and support to Hiram and me. They lead our small church group. They went through discipleship training with me. They encouraged me when I left teaching to start writing. She brought meals after I had surgery. He mowed our lawn when Hiram donated a kidney and helped cut down some big trees in our yard.
When we were devastated by Allen’s decision to become a monk, they asked to be put on the monastery’s mailing list. They cared about us so much they wanted to learn about our son’s world. Their loving act was exactly what we needed, and it still brings me to tears.
Now they’re moving away, and instead of kicking and screaming like I want to, I have to be mature. I have to think of how the changes in their lives are bigger than the ones in mine right now. How hard this must be for them to leave her family and their college-aged daughters behind. How difficult to say good-bye to their church and friends. So many unknowns face them. Can they find a house? Will they find a church they like? Will she find a job in her field?
They didn’t want this move any more than we wanted Allen to enter a monastery. Still it happened, and it’s finally our turn to support them. I need to learn about their new world and help them adjust to it. I’m not sure where or how to start. But we’ve had some wonderful friends as examples. If I think about what they’ve done for us, I’ll get some great ideas. And be moved to tears.
