Road Trip!

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Now that my vacations are no longer so tied to school schedules, I can leave town whenever I can get the time off of work. But there’s something special about heading out in the car during the summer months that make those expeditions extra special.

Yesterday it was my husband and my two grown sons who jumped into the vehicle with me, embarking on a journey to see the youngest in the family graduate from college in Florida. An all day drive from Ohio, I had plenty of time to think about the first time I made this trip a couple of years earlier, when it was my responsibility to deposit the third child on his college’s doorstep and get him ready for the term ahead.

I remember how impacted my life was by “change” at that moment in time. My older two sons had attended local universities for much of their college careers and had simply continued to live at home to save whatever money they could. Having been blessed with an intact family for longer than most mothers could imagine, it was almost more than I could bear to have the youngest two leave the nest within two months of each other. With as willing a spirit as I could muster I prepared to settle in to a life in which I heard their voices only on the phone or through text messages, rather than hollering at me from just down the hall. I thought life would never be the same.

Yesterday as I looked out the window at the miles passing by I thought about how wrong I had been and laughed at the many things that were remarkably the same. The scenery was familiar, for one thing, certain checkpoints inspiring the same corny jokes that they did the first time down the road. The camaraderie between us that makes the members of my family my traveling companions of choice was as close as ever, as each tried to outdo the others in consideration and accommodation. And though he wasn’t with us yet as we drove south to see him, the same excitement in my youngest boy’s heart over the upcoming next stage in his life filled the thoughts and minds of all of us traveling in the car together.

The most welcome change I noted in this trip was that overwhelming fear had been replaced by incredible joy. The first time down this road anxiety had gripped me so fully that I could barely eat and struggled to fulfill the duties of the few days we had available to us to get him settled in. This time, spiritually even more than physically, I knew beyond doubt I wasn’t traveling alone, and that I could trust God to continue to lead and direct this young man as He had proven to me repeatedly that He could and would do.

The more things change in my life, the more I realize and appreciate the fact that God forever remains the same.

“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever.”
(Hebrews 13:8 LITV)