Well, the weirdness of a new place finally caught up to me today. As much as I would like to think that we're ninjas at moving around, even this very nice place is just not "normal." As Kayla and I talked about it, I realized that in spite of being in sunny Florida, in a real nice apartment, surrounded by great people who share our hearts - this is definitely not "normal." Just then Bright woke up from his late afternoon nap, only a few minutes before dinner. At home we all love being at the table, looking at our world map and each other. Here, for some reason we've been eating at the island in our kitchen. Though that's fairly adventuresome and exotic for the Rupp's, I wanted home. So, in a last ditch effort for "normal," I grabbed the map we hadn't unpacked, the scotch tape, and moved us to the dining table.
As we sat down, Bright instantly recognized it as our "old" map. (Barry and Sarah got us a new one for Christmas.) Coincidentally, over the past few months we've been trying to give Bright an accurate picture of heaven. Instead of floating in the sky, we talk about "old" things and "new" things and specifically how someday Dad will come and make all things NEW. As the words came out of his mouth, a state of reflection came over his face. "Someday Dad will come out of the sky and make that map new." I needed to hear it.
My three year old was reminding me that really I'm not looking for "normal" as much as I'm longing for the NEW to come. Every tribe and tongue on that map, including mine. After dinner we got in the car and found a Goodwill, where we bought fun second-hand shirts and Bright a pink tricycle for $5.95. And that helped too.
