The Happy Sad Day

Growing up my family worked with a crisis pregnancy center and we had foster babies in our home. Usually they stayed with us for 2 months. Some were only with us for a few days, and some much longer. I remember being really attached to these lives that so deeply impacted my own. When it was time to say good-bye, my heart ached. I sometimes took pictures of them to bed with me. Often the final moments with these dear children were filled with tears even though I was happy that they were going to be with their family (birth mother or adoptive family). A friend of our family wrote a story that I think was titled The Happy Sad Day. We each (the 3 kids) got a copy and illustrated it.

As I was saying goodbyes this past week, that same idea came to me. It is so painful to say bunches of good-byes at one time. Knowing it is good and right that seniors graduate and leave BCA doesn't seem to make it any easier. Knowing that God is working in the lives of families headed to the states for a semester or a more permanent transition doesn't ease the pain of saying good-byes either. Their departure still leaves a gaping hole in our community.

At graduation Friday, one of our kindergarten kids (now a first grader) asked if I had noticed her missing tooth (and then continued to show me how the one beside it was loose--I didn't deal too well with that). So, she has a gaping hole in her mouth right now, but in a short time, another tooth will come and fill that space--part of God's design.

Again, my analogies aren't perfect, but as I say good-byes, it is good to remember that God's design is perfect, that others will come to fill those holes. And while they might not be permanent (like we hope our teeth are), or exactly the same as those who have left, there are others that God is bringing into my life. A new group of seniors will step up in the fall and God will provide the teachers that BCA needs.

I think there's the illusion that life gets easier as you get older, that somehow you figure things out and it isn't as painful. I'm glad that hasn't happened, that I still feel pain when I say good-byes and ache in the parting of friends. And yet, as I get older, I can hopefully trust God's plan a bit more in each season of transition and remember that my tears don't go unseen.