Sweet home

Home is good.

Tuesday evening we returned home from Minnesota. And oddly, our yard really struck me (here the picture I took on the spot, suitcases just inside).

Our plants were inches taller and fuller than when we left and new ones appeared. I just realized this weekend that I've never had plants that spring from the ground. As an adult, who currently feels like she's never truly observed Spring before, I've only ever owned annuals that I purchased and put in the dirt myself, roots, leaves, petals and all. In our front yard we have beautiful perennials that grace our thoughtfully designed landscaping. Watching them has been amazing. One day I'm finally addressing the brown, stick-y remnants of plants I vaguely recall, cutting back the dead stalks and leaves. Then, literally days later, vibrant, fresh green shoots magically emerge out of last year's mulch! And very quickly keep growing! I actually had the pleasure of meeting the man behind the composition and construction of our landscaping. I asked if we should be putting down new mulch (like our neighbor, whose yard he was trimming out for Easter) and he told me to wait and see what came up first. The wisdom showed in the vast, botanical welcome home.

And I don't write all of this to point out the disparate contrast in weather between here and there (there being the primary location of our family and friends), but just one of several things kicking around in my brain. The other could be linked via an analogy of Spring and everlasting Life, but I'd rather just come out and say it.

Linda gave all of us a book this past weekend. It's entitled Heaven. It was completely divinely appointed that this book was put in her hands days before Anna went Home. I'm not very far, but the biblical truths, that we're all basically- but not always fully - aware of, have been both encouraging and convicting. I do not encounter head on the reality that Anna is no longer here on this earth during every hour of my day. Just trying to put myself in Nate and Lisa's shoes, my eyes well up. In the days leading up to leaving for Minnesota, Olaiya and I had chats about Anna, the primary one while out doing "yard work". We walked through "new body" versus "old body". She got it. After we arrived, we talked more about, for lack of a better word, the logistics of her old body. I was fearful, but she got it. And she seems to get it better than I do. She sings and talks about Anna and Heaven. She asks questions about Heaven and dying, and I try to answer simply and truthfully. And I feel like I'm starting to better understand, and appreciate, the mind of a child.

Mom, does the food in my body go to Heaven?

Mom, are there mountains in Heaven?

Mom, when do we get to go to Heaven? How do we go there?

Look, Mom! I made this heart for Cousin Anna and I'm going to take it to her when I go to Heaven!

Jesus definitely knows what He's talking about.

__________

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Mark 19:14

*As we deplaned into Reagan National Airport, we passed by folks at the gate agent desk saying, "What do you mean our flight is canceled?" Huge praise that last week when 3000 AA flights didn't leave the ground, our American flight seamlessly brought us home.