Echoes of Mt. Airy

 

As the moving men carried the dining room table out the front door, I felt a little tug on my heart strings.  We bought that dining room set when we moved into our house in Mt. Airy, Maryland...I guess about 15 years ago.  Now, we've sold it, and our house sits completely empty waiting for someone to buy it, too.

I really liked that dining room set and have a lot of fun memories associated with it; Thanksgivings with ridiculous amounts of food served up on silver and china; birthday meals and blown out candles as we purposely sing horrifically off-key; graduation open houses and send-offs to the army; Christmas brunches; Mexican train dominoes and Uno marathons; and all the patterns laid out and cut with a sewing machine at one end and a serger at the other.  It was a great set of furniture in a great room in a great house.

As I stood looking at the bits of dirt and food and piles of dust and dog hair that had clustered behind the furniture, I got a little misty thinking about everything that was in that house in Mt. Airy.  Almost all of it has changed or is now gone.  Remembering the "things" in that house eventually gave way to memories of our life during that time.  Our lives and all of us have changed so much, too.

At this juncture, I find myself pondering the decisions we made back then, the heartaches we endured.  I don't regret them all.  I do know that we are all on our own journey.  Our green pastures, quiet waters and valleys of darkness are all a little different.  Our Shepherd leads us each down the path of His choosing.  Today, knowing what I know, having seen what I've seen, having felt what I've felt, I don't make the same choices I did back then....at least not all the time.  My sanctification process does seem to be progressing.

Still...in that big, empty, echoing space, I wondered what I will look back on 15 years from now and wish I had done differently.  I suppose I'll only really grasp that when I'm 15 years older and I know, see and feel that much more.  For now, I will use the experiences and knowledge I have of my Shepherd to help me choose the furnishings of my life, and I'll enjoy or endure the memories I make with the people I am so privileged to love.