Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Next Generation


Last weekend “the girls” got together for our regular quarterly dinner date. Our group began years ago when Rachel moved to our home town at the age of three. Mandy joined the club the following year and still complains that Rach and I wouldn’t play kitchen with her at first in our old HRBC Sunday school room. Do you know I can still picture that room in my head? I can tell you where the blocks were, the tables, and that infamous kitchen. Anyway, the elementary years brought Carly and Rana into the picture completing our lifelong ex-Roadie club (Our church was Hampton Road Baptist Church, therefore church goers were called “roadies,” kind of a funny name for church goers!).

Our quarterly dinner date this past weekend took me back into time to our preschool Sunday school days. During dinner I saw a little Rachel running around looking up at me with big blue eyes, a mini Mandy smiling at me around every corner, a feisty Rana ready for a chase, and a little stringy blond haired girl acting a bit like me. It wasn’t déjà vu. For the first time we had all of our kids together for a big blowout family cookout.



Although I love seeing all our children’s personalities and getting to know each other’s spouses a little better, my favorite part is still us. “The girls.” I can’t say it any better than Rana already has. We are all so different but we come together and complete each other. Just like a puzzle where no piece is alike, each person brings something unique to the table. God gave me all the “pieces” I need when he gave me “the girls.” He has given me other “pieces” I need outside of “the girls.” But that’s a different story. We create our own complete picture.

I watch our new little generation with wonder. Will they connect to each other after simmering together year after year, enduring numerous cookouts the next 18 years? Will the miles that separate them be no match for the bond they will create when they make fun of their moms who use to be called “Roadies?” I’ll enjoy the view while waiting to see.

No comments: