Hope that Remains
We’ve just walked through the 18th anniversary of Victoria’s week with us on this earth (February 28–March 4, 2008). Our goodbye with her stands as a holy experience for us to this day at the intersection of heaven and earth. Our hope remains . . .
There are other goodbyes in our story to people and places that have shaped us as a family. One such goodbye was our family’s move to Pucallpa, Peru in 2014. We said goodbye to our Lancaster County family, church, and community, with a new life in Peru ahead of us. Little did we know that in 2019, we would say goodbye to our redemptive family, church, and community in Pucallpa, Peru to move to Valparaiso, Indiana. I still remember gathering in our living room with Kristin, Caleb, Jacob and Rachel to pray right before we left our Peruvian home. My prayer started with tears.
Tears accompanied these gut-wrenching departures, because the deep relationships, memories of life shared, hardships overcome, and goodness of hope experienced in each place overwhelmed us. In Acts 20, we read how Paul and the elders of Ephesus experienced such a tearful and agonizing goodbye (vv 36–38). I imagine the scene as the Ephesian leaders “were accompanying him to the ship,” remembering precious and personal moments for us shared with those who accompanied our family to our packed van or to an airport check in as we prepared to set off on our journey.
Leavings in life also shape our perspective. Where we now lack daily interaction with dear friends with whom we once shared life, we hold onto a vision of sharing together in His presence, a hope contained in the promise of a new heaven and new earth. It stands out to me that Paul’s letter to the Ephesians represents this grand vision of ultimate fulfillment, in both the cosmos and the community of Christ’s Body, the Church. Closely held community for Paul helped to cultivate the expansive vision that is his letter to the Ephesians. It raises the questions—How might lack of community hinder our perspective and lack of vision hinder our connection?
When we moved to Peru, the Lord put on my heart that Pucallpa was like an “Ephesus” for us. One expression of this is how it has shaped our perspective and hope for redemptive family. Twelve years since first moving there, a return visit is now on the horizon. This March 6–15, I am accompanying my son, Caleb, and his college soccer team on a trip to serve children in the region through soccer clinics. By God’s grace, upon returning from Peru, I look forward to exploring further Paul’s hope expressed in Ephesians. May we keep discovering together the hope of our cosmic calling as Christ’s Church.