all that he swore

We are safely back to Jackson after a VERY long travel day and all the girls were back to school this morning! We missed Dad in a hundred ways this Easter weekend...missing him and remembering together was extra bitter and extra sweet. To be with cousins who miss Grandpa too...to be with Cindy and Lisa and Adam, also mourning, to do the same things we always do on vacation...it was good and hard.  We've been gathering at Easter cabins in the mountains my whole life, and he would have loved it.  

And yet. He didn't miss out in any way, nor did the majestic mountains and precious grandkids hold a candle to his new and final and forever reality. It would kill me to think he was sad, or missing us like we miss him. I'm so thankful for the reality of Christ with us, because it helps in losing Dad to have a friend who never goes away, never changes, never wavers. It helps that in the empty space Dad left that no one else can fill, He meets us.

Vacation, doing all the things--hiking, ice cream, hot tub, game nights, creeking, putt-putt, dyeing eggs--it reminded us a hundred ways we were loved and known well by Dad, and I really did come out of it yesterday feeling grateful for all those memories and for having a dad and grandpa like that. Eleven kiddos and five adults, we are all who we are because he invested in us, vacation days and the ones in between.

I am going to talk about something else. 

Soon. 

Just every time I find a quiet minute to write, I realize it's still for him.

The Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give their fathers. The Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn their fathers. Not one of all their enemies withstood them. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed: all came to pass.  Joshua 21:43-45

His promises to our fathers will be faithful.