This Place for Today

Packing is arduous business.the frontiers of a place completely unknown to
Finding myself relocating to a new city meansthem. Each generation pushed a little further
participating in the age-old, time-honored practiceWest, following a hope for more than what they
of pulling up stakes, shutting off utilities and lookinghad or could envision for themselves where they
ahead to another part of my life as it unfolds.were. What few pictures I have of these people I
The packing is simply the physical rendition ofnever met reveal great beauty and joy so
sorting and filing memories, moments and hopespoignantly real I can feel them with me, directing
that evidence the truth of the time spent in anyme to take my part in the adventure. The
place we choose to call home. Having done this aunknown didn't seem to phase them, which is a
few times before, I am familiar with the process,gift, like their faith, that they have passed down
its delights and its pitfalls. Gathering one's lifeto me. My people are people of faith, courage and
together, releasing its unneeded portions to theabundantly joyful creativity, an ancestry of which
universe, fitting the remainder into a box onI am proud to share, a legacy I hope to embody
wheels and trusting it will be intact and ready towith grace.
be welcomed into a new space at the other endThe heat of these last days spent in this place
of the road, is both an act of will and faith. Thisthat has been my home for seven years also
move calls forth a good measure of the formerreminds me that I am not carrying out an Exodus
and a greater measure of the latter than anyjourney of Biblical proportions. There will be no hot
other move has required.desert winds on my face or burning sand under
My mother's family started their journey in thismy feet, no blazing sun relentlessly beating down
country in upstate New York in the earlyon my head with each passing minute, hour or
nineteenth century. Eventually making their wayday. There is an address to which I am headed,
through the Midwest, my great grandparents metunlike the Israelites, who would wander for forty
in Iowa in the latter part of that era andyears with only the hope of God's assurance that
continued their travels to Minnesota by way ofthere would be a promised land.
South Dakota. My mother remembers that theyThere is progress in the journey. Years later
returned to Iowa each year to help with theIsaiah would go on to speak of a new Exodus for
cattle drives, the women running the chuckGod's people, a journey to a new Eden-like place.
wagon to provide home cooked meals for the"For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth in
cowboys. Their son carried on the tradition,peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall
moving his wife, son and daughter throughbreak forth into singing, and all the trees of the
Wisconsin and North Dakota before settling infield shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn
Chicago. When my mother speaks of where sheshall come up the cypress; instead of the briar
grew up, it is Chicago she remembers as home.shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the
While I know my grandfather moved his family toLord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign which
accommodate his work, I am not sure why hisshall not be cut off (Isaiah 55: 12-13)." Sometimes
parents kept to the road for so long.what we can't see immediately is as important as
But what their movement across the land tellswhat is within each task and step of the day.
me is that they were strong people with dreams,Within the tangible moments of living are housed
willing to withstand endless days walking next tothe grace and mystery of God's purpose and
covered wagons containing their whole lives topromise. Herein lies our home, wherever we are.