When Grace Surprises Us

Almost a year ago now, we moved back home. We’d been away for nearly a decade, and I’d gotten used to starting over. We’d started over in new cities, at new churches (more than a few times), new homeschool groups, new book clubs and dance studios. And I figured moving back home would be more of the same. But sometimes, grace surprises us.

I should caveat this story by defining what I mean by “home.” We moved back to our home state, to my husband’s childhood home, where his best friend and most of his family still live. For me, it was moving back to the home of my heart, but I’d really only lived there for three years when we moved away for my husband to start graduate school. I’d lived away more than twice as long as I’d lived in the place to which we were returning.

I was returning to a job, but my office was still closed due to COVID. Two of my closest friends had moved away, and most of the others I’d only kept in touch with sporadically. If you’ve ever moved away from a place, you know that it’s impossible to keep up all your relationships the way you did before. In short, I wasn’t sure what I was returning to. Would I still have relationships? Would I have to find new friends? Would I be starting over again, even though we were going home?

It was pretty clear to both me and my husband that we weren’t just going home by chance–God was sending us. He had closed some doors and opened others in quick succession, a pace that dazzled us and left us breathless. The truth was, I’d been homesick for my three-year-home the entire time we’d been away. I missed the landscape, the seasons, the places I’d called my own. I’d felt more like myself there than I’d ever felt anywhere else.

I believed God was sending us home, but I didn’t know what else he had in store. I didn’t know he had a house and four-and-a-half acres of rolling land all picked out for us, a place that would make my heart nearly burst with joy when I woke to find myself there every morning. I didn’t know he had a role waiting for me to play in the lives of some other homeschooling moms who were craving connection and were just waiting for someone with initiative to come along and bring them together. I didn’t know he was going to enchant my daughters with the seasons and the landscape, the same way he’d enchanted me all those years ago. I didn’t know he’d have new kindred spirits waiting to welcome me into their lives with breakfasts and coffees and dinners and conversations about books. Sometimes, grace surprises us.

And I didn’t know how he’d prepare the hearts of my old friends to welcome me home with open arms, as though they’d been waiting for me all along to return. I didn’t know how we’d pick up right where we’d left off, how they’d still see me with clear eyes and hear my heart and embrace my family.

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