A journey can be an actual trip or it can be a pathway to spiritual or emotional growth. It can describe the change of a relationship, the sharing or ending of a marriage, the details of a career, the recognition of a calling. It can describe the faithfulness of God’s work in a life or the dark night of a soul in that same life. It can even describe our paradigm shifts, the changes in thinking and the unlearning we have to do throughout our lives. This series of blogs is about the journeys of life. This guest post by Sally Hoekstra describes a journey of generations.

It was always dark when she came. The car lights and the glow of the back porch light were the only spots of brightness. She always had a big smile on her face. I always stood in my bright kitchen,with the sleep still in my eyes and my bathrobe flung over my shoulder. We always talked for a minute. And then she would hand me a priceless package, a little bundle of wonder entrusted to me a couple of days a week while she went to work.

I took this sweet little girl and while we were both still sleepy, we quietly rocked. Most days she went back to sleep, so I would shut my eyes and we slept together for a while until the day started. This precious exchange happened for a couple of years. Then this child became a big sister, I had other children coming, and the quiet hand off in the dark happened no longer.

From a distance, I have watched this infant, this young child, these teen-ager, this now married mother grow up. And recently, this young lady made a hand off of her own. I know it had to feel dark as she gave her mom to the bright kitchen of heaven. I know she had tears in her eyes, not the sleeping eyes when she was handed to me.  I know her heart broke as I know her mom’s heart broke each time she left Leah in my arms.

But I also know that Leah handed her mom into the arms of a Savior, dressed in a white robe as the lights of heaven made tearful eyes shine. My heart rejoices because Sheri no longer struggles with disease. But my heart continues to break for Leah, that little girl, handing off her precious mom, even into the arms of the Lord.