The Same God

My son is a serial doodler. It isn’t just in the margins, either.  He once studied for a high school Latin verb test with a sheet of doodles he had drawn, each character acting out the study word. I have a collection of some of his finer work, but apparently one had escaped my notice.

Unbeknownst to me, my son recently e-mailed his junior high religion teacher. He had been prompted because of a doodle he had found from a journaling exercise in that class. He had sketched a figure holding an umbrella in the rain, and his teacher had written a note above it:

“Dude, it’s grace. Do not be afraid! Put down the umbrella.”

Moving hasn’t been the easiest thing for our family, and some of us have done a better job at putting down roots than others. My son and I have both made some lovely acquaintances, but long for deeper friendships here like the ones we had at home.

The e-mail that my son received back from his former teacher was filled with hope and gentle guidance.

Exactly the sort of thing that you would pray your child would receive in response. His teacher shared his own experiences from moving mid-high school, and how brighter things await. One sentence in particular stood out to my son: the same God who watched over you here watches over you there.

It’s been a few weeks now since he received the email that he excitedly shared with me. It settled over him like much needed warmth in winter, and I have seen with my own eyes what a dose of hope has done for his outlook.

This new place isn’t like the home we left, but it’s still our home.

It may be a slower process than we would like to forge new close friendships, but it will come. There’s grace to be found because the same God who was watching over us there watches over us here. How could we possibly ask for more?