Hi Craig,
It is early January 2018, hard to believe that it has been almost 5 years since I moved back to Rhode Island and another Christmas has passed. I miss you Craig with all my heart and soul. You know that each time I sit down to write one of these blog posts to you I seem to lose all of the thoughts I have been accumulating in my mind about all that I want to say to you and share with you and only one thing seems to ring true – I love you and I miss you and I have faith in my LORD that one day I will get to see you again and we can talk face to face.
Since my last blog post a lot has been happening here in Rhode Island. I am guessing by now that you, in reading your blog posts, have noticed I have, as I suspect you do as well, a real love of the ocean and the sun. I was able to visit a truly miraculous place in September and I have posted a few of the pictures from that place. I hope one day to visit this place with you. Since returning, the accounting firm that I work for completed a merger and a small acquisition in December and these two items, along with just the normal pace that your Dad seems to keep, have kept me busy and from posting blogs as often as I like. However, please know that each day, on my way to work, I am compiling a posting to you in my mind. These thoughts about you are often just a silent hello and a prayer that Jesus is looking over you and protecting you.
So, what is with the title – Home for the Holidays, you might ask? Well as the adage states – home is where the heart is and being HOME for the holidays seems to be mission critical. Well, my heart is with you Craig, even 400+ miles away and since we are not together this Holiday I chose to search more deeply for the meaning of HOME. Recently, I have been reflecting on a piece of scripture – John 14 specifically, and in contemplating those pieces of God’s word, I started thinking that it is NOT just the holidays when we as humans myself included, long for our HOME, but really all of us are longing year-round, always, and in different ways. So……
John 14 says “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
To me, Craig, I am longing so deeply for you and the only thing I am really holding onto is my faith in Jesus that one day I will get a chance to see you and hold you again, but for now all I can do is pray and have faith. As your Dad it is so very painful to not know how you are doing, where you are and if you are OK. I am taking comfort in God’s word that he is looking over you and that he has prepared a place for us and he, so very much longs, to see us and have us safe. So, Craig, while we are separated once again this Holiday, please know that you are in my heart, mind and prayers daily. The song I chose for this blog post is one that I have been listening to this Holiday season and one I am working out on the Guitar. One of the pictures associated with this Blog post is of those members of your family here in Rhode Island and they all ask about you regularly and were so excited to see the most recent school picture of you that I was able to pull down from your school website. I will use future blog posts to introduce you to each of your family members, which is coming VERY soon.
Love Dad.