Never Walk Alone

My sister Abby and I did a really crazy thing over spring break - we took our three kids, ages 6, 4 and 4, and made a road trip to Colorado to visit our Grandma.

Three kids and two adults, in a Ford Escape, for an 18+ hour road trip. Sardines!

It was a little crazy, but mostly, it was a whole lot of good.

It was good to see some countryside. It was good to see Grandma, and the other family we visited with while we were there. It was good to try something hard and succeed at it. It was good to be warm and stick our feet in the cool water of the St. Vrain river. It was good to see the mountains, and to smell the signature smell of Grandma's house by the river - red rocks, water, nature, clean air.

It was good to be together.

Any time I've ever gone away from home with my girls, I am overwhelmed by the same, simple thing; It doesn't matter where we go. It doesn't matter what we do. It doesn't matter how long we're gone... if we are together, they are well.

For Leah and Susie, their security and happiness is not so much how nice our hotel is, or how good the food, or fun the activity, or pleasant the company... it's how close are we to our mom? Is she here? Is she with us? Can we climb up into her lap right now? Can we hold her hands? Can we talk to her? We just want our mom.

(This is the same if they are with Dad, too, or with both of us. It's just that I'm the mom, so I'm looking at it right now from my involvement.)

I remember the first time I traveled to California from Michigan with Leah - she was 5 months old at the time. Babe in arms. The whole six hours of flight from here to there I held her close to my chest. She didn't cry at all. Everyone commented on how good that baby was!

Now she's six years old. In a few years she'll probably be as tall as I am. I can't really carry her anymore, but I can tell that when she's feeling insecure in a new environment such as we encounter when we travel, all she needs to feel right again is a cuddle, a story, a closeness with something she knows - like her mom.

Ah, so much of this is like how we are with God, if he's our Father. It doesn't matter where we go, or what we do - we just want Him. Is he here? Is he with us? Can we, metaphorically, climb into his lap right now? Hold his hands? Talk to him? We just want our Father.

What we need to feel secure in a strange or new place

is the presence of something we know, something that loves us, something that never changes.

That something is God.

I felt this myself while on our trip - unsettled at times, insecure. Late at night, after the girls had fallen asleep, I'd feel uncomfortable in heart. And so I'd pray. And he would comfort me.

The best part of my walk with God is knowing this - he is always with me.

I never walk alone.

All photographs were taken by my sister, Abby. Thank you, Abby!