Deeper meanings
It's Friday evening, and April has gone out of town for the weekend with her mom, sister, and sister-in-law. Time for me to hijack her blog again. This time, it's her absence that has inspired a post.
This isn't the first time April has been gone for a weekend. They go away every year. And every year, I find that I miss her tremendously while she is away. Early on, I missed having her around because we were newlyweds who had lots of adventures together. Once we had kids, I missed an extra set of hands. Now that the kids are older, we have fun doing "Dad Camp" while she is away. But I still miss her until she is home again.
When she is gone, when life has been busy, when we haven't had a chance to slow down and catch up for a while, I feel like something is missing. Today, I looked through a few family pictures, not because I forget what she looks like but because I want to see her face one more time. I found myself reading through texts that she had sent within the last few days just to see her words. So many of our texts seem mundane: grocery lists, a message that she got to work OK, a reminder to take care of something around the house, a chance to check in on the kids. There was a time when I would read a text and then delete it or never read it again. For some reason, I now find myself re-reading them from time to time. When you know her like I do, her personality shows through in every message. Every little text, every picture. The way she abbreviates certain words. The emoticons she chooses. The fact that even short texts have capitalization and punctuation. Each one has meaning because we have had years to grow together in our relationship, and I now her more deeply than ever before.
As I read through her words and realize how much meaning has been added over the years through our deeper relationship, my thoughts turned to other words that I have read many times. The other day, the kids were reading their Bibles, and one of them mused that I have probably read the entire thing at least once. I told them that I have read the Bible all the way through (I'm pretty sure), and that I have read some stories over and over. When I first started reading my Bible on a somewhat regular basis, back in middle school, a lot of the words seemed mundane, even a little boring. As my relationship with God deepens, I know Him better. I understand his words a little more. Things that used to seem insignificant now point to a greater story, a love letter that is woven throughout God's word. Sometimes, when I haven't spent as much time with God as I should (or as much as I would like), I miss His words. And when I return to them, I find even greater meaning than before.
It's funny how something silly like a simple text from my wife can point to a bigger truth.
This isn't the first time April has been gone for a weekend. They go away every year. And every year, I find that I miss her tremendously while she is away. Early on, I missed having her around because we were newlyweds who had lots of adventures together. Once we had kids, I missed an extra set of hands. Now that the kids are older, we have fun doing "Dad Camp" while she is away. But I still miss her until she is home again.
When she is gone, when life has been busy, when we haven't had a chance to slow down and catch up for a while, I feel like something is missing. Today, I looked through a few family pictures, not because I forget what she looks like but because I want to see her face one more time. I found myself reading through texts that she had sent within the last few days just to see her words. So many of our texts seem mundane: grocery lists, a message that she got to work OK, a reminder to take care of something around the house, a chance to check in on the kids. There was a time when I would read a text and then delete it or never read it again. For some reason, I now find myself re-reading them from time to time. When you know her like I do, her personality shows through in every message. Every little text, every picture. The way she abbreviates certain words. The emoticons she chooses. The fact that even short texts have capitalization and punctuation. Each one has meaning because we have had years to grow together in our relationship, and I now her more deeply than ever before.
As I read through her words and realize how much meaning has been added over the years through our deeper relationship, my thoughts turned to other words that I have read many times. The other day, the kids were reading their Bibles, and one of them mused that I have probably read the entire thing at least once. I told them that I have read the Bible all the way through (I'm pretty sure), and that I have read some stories over and over. When I first started reading my Bible on a somewhat regular basis, back in middle school, a lot of the words seemed mundane, even a little boring. As my relationship with God deepens, I know Him better. I understand his words a little more. Things that used to seem insignificant now point to a greater story, a love letter that is woven throughout God's word. Sometimes, when I haven't spent as much time with God as I should (or as much as I would like), I miss His words. And when I return to them, I find even greater meaning than before.
It's funny how something silly like a simple text from my wife can point to a bigger truth.
