My visit to my family in South Dakota is nearing its end.  It certainly isn’t what it used to be when I could count on everyone and everything being pretty much the same.  It was a safe and secure place to be because I always knew what to expect and the people in my family were pretty consistent in their words, actions and love.  There has always been contentment for me in returning to my roots.

Things have been gradually changing over the years however as it does for everyone as we all grow older.  Aunts, uncles, neighbors and friends have passed away.  People have moved out and new people have moved in. Our family farm is still there however, and two of my brothers and their wives live and work there.  My nephews and nieces are grown and gone but for me the biggest difference is my parents are no longer there.  My father passed away almost five years ago and my mother is in an assisted living facility.  While the coziness of the house is still there, the comfort of my parents being there is not. 

For 45 years, I loved that feeling of driving into the yard and seeing all the familiar sites with which I had grown up. It always conjured up a feeling of well-being in my heart.  I still enjoy going there, but the feelings are not quite the same.  Each time I leave, I have a sense of anxiety about what I will return to on my next visit.  How will things be different and how will I react to that? 

In my head I know life has to go on and we are not like the people in Brigadoon or in the novel Tuck Everlasting where some of the characters lived forever bringing its own set of issues. But, I long for some things in the past where the familiar and simple could be counted on and they soothed my soul.  But such is life and I do know in my heart “The best is yet to come”.

I know this because of God’s promise to us.  When Jesus visited the woman at the well in Samaria, He offered her “living water”-the gift of God, even knowing her sinful past.  “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who is drinking of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the  water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life’” (John 4:13-14).

God is a constant, never changing part of our lives that we always know will be there however old we get. We will always know what to expect from Him and He is constant in His words and actions. He never changes and His love for us is unconditional as he reaches out with His grace and salvation with the offer of eternal life!  There is comfort and security in the knowledge of this love and for that reason we can all look forward to what is to come.

Patty