Traveling

 

As school begins, it is evident that people are clearing out a few things around the house. The curbs have been more full recently. I imagine that families have been looking for things they need for school and finding stuff they no longer need. Or, they are making room for new stuff acquired for the new school year. Whatever the reason, things are getting interesting again on the day of trash pickup.

I’m not sure why this old suitcase captured my attention on my morning walk. I suppose part of it is that it is “old school”. It reminds me of the days when you truly had to “lug” your luggage. No wheels. No lightweight space age materials. No telescoping handle. This discarded suitcase is from the era when you had to pick it up and carry it as far as you could go before you needed to stop and restart the circulation in your fingers. As my daddy used to say in reference to overgeneralized reminiscing, “I don’t remember the good old days as being all that good. I like my modern conveniences.”

But I think another reason it captured my attention is that I began to imagine all the places it had traveled in its long experience as a suitcase. No doubt it had visited family and friends across the years. It may have gone on a happy honeymoon trip. Perhaps it had stood in the corner, packed and ready, while it’s owners awaited a trip to the hospital for the birth of a child. It might have made some hard trips to the home of dying parents, or to a strange city for an interview for a desperately needed job. I wonder.

People are like that old suitcase. We carry with us all the stops along our journey. Some stops were happy and full of joy. Others were difficult and challenging, but moved us to a new place in our journey of becoming. Still other stops were just painful, full of disappointment and pain. But we carry them all with us. The various and varied experiences stay with us, going into the mix of who we are and who we are becoming.

Jesus promised to never leave us or forsake us. I believe that promise includes all the stops on our journey, even the painful ones along the way. Maybe especially the painful ones along the way. And that promise gives hope.

Peace.