Finally finished tweaking my 'End-of-year' video and it's posted below, but let me take this opportunity to tell a bit more of my story.
We're all gonna leave and we're all gonna leave a legacy. The legacy will reveal itself in a myriad of ways, some of which we'll be privy to, but most revelations will come in future generations and we won't be around to write about, learn from, or participate in those joys and sorrows.
We'll have moved on.
We must move on.
There is no going back.
One of my favorite verses is Luke 9:62 ~ But Jesus told him, "Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God."
Quite often, in the New Testament, Jesus spoke in parables. He told stories. This one in Luke is about farming. When you head down the field with your plow, you must fix your eyes on a spot ahead. You can't keep looking back at where you've been because you will make crooked rows and the harvest will not be as plentiful. In this biblical scenario, once you make the decision to follow and love God wholeheartedly, don't look back at what you've left behind.
Which brings me to another favorite verse, Philippians 3:13 ~ "So let us not exchange our spiritual calling to something temporary and physical. Therefore, let us do our best in forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead!”
This is exactly where we found ourselves, this year, at almost every turn. The video tells most of the story. But not all of it. Our saddest (and frustrating, and maddening, and harrowing) story is told on our daughter's blog: Before And Africa. But God's stories never end in ashes and Moses and his rightful family will always be a part of our story!
And so we move on.
And then we moved back.
Another segment of our year that really isn't included in the video (maybe 2018 EOY picture show)
So what IS in the video? Mainly, my version of the story. The story of leaving the farm. There are 3 little lines in the lyrics of each song which demanded they be included in the video.
"Get lost and get right with my soul"
This is my moving on story. And once again, I use the end of the year, beginning of the new year to resolve to return to my first love. Love God, love others and love myself. Not sure about how all the logistics of "getting my soul right" will play out. Maybe in the written and spoken words or unspoken ways. But I gotta get this right.
"This is us and our memories"
Just as in the adoption story, this was not only my story to tell. It was a generational farm and it is a generational story. Emotions were all over the map. Whether or not we were all on the same page, it was time.
We'll always have Remington.
"Tis grace"
I am thankful for His amazing grace and the blessings which flowed from the farm on the edge of town. I am grateful for a mom and dad and brothers and sisters who love the giver of all good gifts, the land, and the life it afforded us. I am overwhelmed with a heavenly father who loved us more than we'll ever be able to fathom. I am anxious to move on, but I will always cherish my past and recent memories and will do everything in my power to keep the story alive.
Someone else may own it now, soon another family will, most likely live there so head's up ... Someday (if it's still there, in a hundred years from now, the grey barn may or may not hold a handful of ashes) because somehow my legacy will always begin and end there.
Another favorite verse is etched into cement at the entrance to the party shed. Psalm 89:1 ~ "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, with my mouth will I make known, thy faithfulness to all generations.
Without further adieu ... "Because I'm The Mom Productions" proudly presents
"This Is Us" 2017
Drone credits courtesy of Deep End Films
Music by: Rodney Atkins, Mark Knopfler, Emmylou Harris, Sufjan Stevens
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