Our retirement officially began four months ago. We have been working for those months to execute our plan of moving to be closer to our children and grandchildren. The first phase occurred before we formally retired. We both moved out of offices that we had occupied for a quarter of a century. The offices were filled to the brim with books, resources, memorabilia and other items. We had a closet filled with robes and stoles. I had a collection of drums and gifts from years of ministry. We both had walls of bookshelves filled with books that were a part of our ministry. Those offices were emptied and the resources that we saved were brought to our home. Our home was a large family home that was filled with the things we had collected in a lifetime. There were furniture pieces that had been in our families for many generations, clocks that had been in the homes of our grandparents. We only had wall and mantle clocks, but they definitely were our grandfathers’ clocks. A rental storage unit housed the boats I have made over the past 30 years and boxes of things we had packed when our parents’ houses were sold. Our retirement began with a huge sorting process.

We have hauled truckloads of items to the mission and Love, Inc., and Habitat for Humanity. Items have been donated to the American Association of University Women and Good Will. We have found friends who could use some of the furniture and a few of the tools and items from our garage. We hauled boxes to the used record store and a vintage clothing dealer.

Then, on Wednesday, we loaded a U-Haul truck and trailer with our household and the next morning we headed west with the load. Yesterday at about 1 in the afternoon we arrived at the home that we rented sight unseen - though thoroughly toured by our son and viewed with lots of pictures on the Internet. Bit by bit a few items were moved into the house. Our tools were unloaded into the garage. Our living room furniture brought into the new house. A mattress was unloaded and a bed made.

But the image of the day that will remain in my mind for the rest of my life has nothing to do with trucks and trailers and furniture and possessions. Shortly after we arrived, our son’s van pulled into the driveway and the doors opened and three grandchildren ran from the car to greet us as we stood in the empty garage trying to figure out a plan to get moved into our new home. I kneeled on the floor as our three-year-old granddaughter ran at me full bore and gave me the biggest hug that she could. Soon I was embraced by the other two as well. I remembered why we have been working so hard for this time to go off on this grand adventure. Instead of being more than a thousand miles away and carrying on our relationship with our grandchildren over Skype and FaceTime, we are in the same town as they. We can have family meals together. We can go for walks together. We can hear reports of their learning adventures and keep up with how school is going for them. We can have their support as we move into the next phase of our lives.

After a supper of carry out from a sandwich shop in a kitchen without any furniture, our son and grandchildren helped us move a few of our items into the house. Our six-year-old granddaughter was arranging the closet in our bedroom, insisting that my jacket be hung on one side and Susan’s on the other. She arranged our suitcases as they were carried into the room and unpacked the hangers from the clothes hamper. She arranged shoes in the rack. Our nine-year-old grandson made trip after trip from the back of the truck, carrying what he was able. Our son and I carried the couch into the living room and set up the two chairs from our home in Rapid City. The three-year-old helped Susan make the bed and cuddled in the comforter.

Looking back form this point in our lives, it seems like the time that our children were young was so brief. We had lots of adventures and we really enjoyed having children. Every stage of their growth and development brought joy to our lives. I was laughing with our son last night as we recalled moving him into a third-story college dorm room without using the elevator and the long trip when we helped him move to North Carolina for graduate school. I drove 6,000 miles with a pickup truck and hauled their things and towed their car from Portland Oregon to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Started in Rapid City, stopped in Rapid City on our way and returned to Rapid City with an empty truck. It was a grand adventure! We have some experience with moving together.

One of the most precious gifts of our lives has been the gift of children. We have been fortunate to have been called to a vocation where we are in contact with other people’s children as well. We have so many friends from the church whose children and grandchildren we know and love. We get to watch them grow up and mature and discover their own callings in life. How wonderful it is that we are surrounded by children.

Gracious God, today is Children’s Sabbath. It is a day we have set aside to give you thanks for the gift of children, to appreciate the children in our lives and to dedicate ourselves to their love, care and nurture. Throughout the forty days of preparation for this day, we have prayed for the children of the world. Many face problems and challenges. We have raised their situations before you and in our own minds as we have prayed. We know that there is a lot of work that remains. Today, however, we pause to simply say “Thank you!” What a gift it is to have these precious ones in our lives! How grateful we are! May they be blessed abundantly as you have blessed us. Amen.

Copyright (c) 2020 by Ted E. Huffman. I wrote this. If you would like to share it, please direct your friends to my web site. If you'd like permission to copy, please send me an email. Thanks!