Taste of Home

The smell, taste, feel, and texture of a peach remind me of home. I ate one this morning, and the fuzzy skin on my lips brought tears to my eyes. In fact, I tell everyone that even the peaches and cream shake from Chick-Fil-A is Rosebloom in a cup. Everytime I cut open a watermelon too, the smell taste me back to childhood, and I can instantly feel a box fan blowing warm air on my legs. Something about those 2 smells makes me homesick for Mississippi in the summer. Summertime is the hardest. Sometimes I get so homesick, I feel physically ill.

But when I start to think about it, I don't really miss home so much. Things have changed, and I know it. What I really miss...are those days gone by. It's easy to start to get homesick when I think of how easy and innocent life used to be. Before illnesses...before I knew about conflict...before I realized that we are in a world at war. Those days are gone, and I'll never get them back. The memories are forever though, and I pray they never fade.

It's a big pill for me to swallow...knowing that things will never be the same again. But I have to be able to walk the walk that I've been preaching for months to my people. Isaiah 43 speaks of the "new thing." The children of Israel had been redeemed from slavery in Egypt, but now they were in exile. God allows them to remember all that He has done for them and the wonderful ways that He had provided for them. And now in 43:18-19 he says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."  In other words, "this is nothing compared to what I am going to do."

My childhood was wonderful, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I enjoyed growing up, and now that I'm an adult, I appreciate all of the life lessons learned the hard way. I love that I was taught to work hard for everything that we have and to be independent and productive and to contribute to the Kingdom of God. But too many times, people look at their past a little too longingly. It's like walking forward while looking behind you.  You miss what's ahead!

I can appreciate the past, but I can also look forward to the future with confidence because God is doing a "new thing." I don't know what it is, yet, but I'm excited to see.