Taking the Long View

I grew up on Longview Avenue in Portland, Oregon, right down the street from Overlook Park. Oh, how I loved that park - rolling down the grassy hillside, making delicate chains out of clover flowers, spending hours on the merry go round (somewhat unwisely surrounded by gravel, as the scar on my knee still vividly attests), splashing in the concrete wading pool, and picking blackberries that grew at the edge of the park. It was familiar and comfortable. It was home.

When I was 9 years old, however, we moved away from Longview Avenue and I felt like my whole world had been torn apart. I simply couldn’t imagine any other reality than what I already knew. Could any other place feel like home?

But then something amazing happened; Corvallis began to feel like home… and then Gallipolis, Swarthmore, Grenoble, Benin, Atlanta, Cleveland Heights, Lakewood, Media and now Bay Village all eventually felt like home. Every single move and transition has been hard as I left behind familiar faces and comfortable routines. But there were always blessing amidst the change – new friendships, experiences and opportunities.

Our current transition into post-pandemic living feels a lot like the upheaval of moving. We have been forced to leave behind familiar faces and comfortable routines and are stumbling as best we can into a new season of life. We wonder if it is possible for this new space to feel like home.

I believe that we will be able to see the blessings and sacred surprises of our new home once we open our eyes to the "long view" – the reminder that God is with us yesterday, today and tomorrow. The alpha and the omega The beginning and the end. The long view.

The “long view” invites us to see God’s presence with us through it all – the agony, struggles, celebrations and hopes. God is with us as we move into this new season of our lives and make a new home wherever we land.

As a child growing up on Longview Avenue, God was with me. God is with me now. And God will be with me always. That is the “long view” that I pray for the strength to remember – especially when the challenges of moving into this new reality sometimes feel too heavy to bear.

May we have eyes to see the “long view” as we step into the days to come. God is with us - yesterday, today and tomorrow. Be encouraged, beloved. Be encouraged.