Thankfulness {day three}

We have been living in this house for 1,987 days.  (For those of you who really like numbers, that is 2,861,280 minutes; 47,688 hours or 283 weeks.)

I like that number.  Not because of any real signicance to the number itself, but because that is 1,987 days that we haven't moved.  That we haven't packed or unpacked the house.  That we have been settled.

We have new neighbors across the street.  I met the mom and her two little kids a few days ago and she is one tired Momma.  There is nothing quite like moving across the country, towing your car and riding in a moving van with your six year old and your two year old.  I feel her exhaustion deep in my bones.  Several days later, their garage is still full of boxes and furniture is haphazardly placed here and there.  There are a few bits and pieces that give evidence of their settling ... a wind sock hanging from the front of the house, the little girl's pink jeep parked by the garage and the trash can sitting at the curb, bursting with packing material.  But it will be a while before this young family will feel at home.

We have some friends who are literally right in the middle of their 13th move.  They are our traveling friends as their roots having been put down in a variety of states, including, but not limited to Washington, Florida, Oklahoma, Colorado, California and now, Tennessee.  Following on Facebook their last few weeks of packing and re-packing and pitching and packing, I was tired and excited for them.  But mainly tired. :)

I am a creature of habit and I am grateful for our settled and established home.  To say that I am not fond of change would probably be an understatement.  And the bummer is that change is inevitable.  Like my Mom would say, "The only thing that doesn't change is the fact that everything changes."  So true.

Even in our established and rooted home we experience change on a regular basis.  Birthdays, milestones, growing pains, tussles for independence, too-short pants and endlessly shaggy hair.  As soon as I feel settled in a season of life, the kids move on and I am traveling to the next stage of life.  And just as I get my Mommy-toolbox unpacked, they're on the move again to another big-kid phenomena.

Change is the only thing we can be 100% sure of.

My thankfulness today is grounded in the glorious truth that God is unchangeable.  The only Constant in a world of change.

¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17, emphasis mine)

Only God knows what twists and turns are ahead for our family and gratefully we can face those changes while trusting God to be the same today, tomorrow and every day thereafter.

It still doesn't mean I want to move anytime soon!