"Leave your country, your family, and your father’s house, for the land I will show you." Genesis 12:1-2
Today I will begin a road trip to return our older son to college. The summer has come to an end for him and his junior year of college awaits. Amazing! It has been a good summer…a little work, a little rest, a little vacation, a little time with family, and a little time with friends. We have all grown much over the last months as we have danced often painful ,but much needed, dance of letting go.
Over the weekend I spent time with several parents who are sending their young adults off to college for the first time. The stories they told were familiar and I found myself in a place I never thought I would be. I found myself offering a calming word, a gentle reminder that the work of their children right now was to move away, to separate, to find their own way in the world. It is difficult work but rewarding in ways we never imagine.
Roots and wings. As parents we pray that we have given our children the roots that will keep them grounded as the world and their life experiences toss them about. We pray that the roots will include a deep knowing that they are loved beyond measure, that they have an invisible community that travels with them, that they always remember who they truly are, and that above all else they are made in the image of God.
In the same breath we pray that they have the wings to soar….to become not only all we have imagined for them, but all they have imagined for themselves, that they never ‘settle’ for the path of least resistance but reach beyond themselves to see the real and true ways they can make a difference in the world. We pray that the work they choose and the education they pursue will help them to follow the bliss of their dreams and will find them living out the gifts that were planted deep within them at their birth.
All this, along with the ‘stuff’ needed for college life, is a lot to pack into a car for a nearly thousand mile road trip. But it is all in there. It is the least I can do. It is the least any of us can do. Because it is what our parents did for us and what we hope our children will do for their children.
Roots and wings……………..