I’m here, in Panama City Beach, Florida, finding my way as I come to a place where “family” may be found again, having returned from the far country of exile that was Hurricane Michael and COVID-19, where my husband died, like a modern day Naomi. I am in the care of Ruths who do not leave, but come alongside because we share the same grief. I look for familiar faces from an earlier once-and now-again place, from before the famine(s) that scattered so many. But so much has changed. I feel dis-placed. I push away the bitterness that some feel in this circumstance because I know God is with me. While I am not restored to “pleasantness”, I am safe and provided for and that is enough. I trust God to restore my place of “belongingness”. And because I know He sees me, loves, me , is good and Sovereign, and has a plan for hope and a future I can trust that life will be pleasant again. I wait for the Lord. CBB 1/29/22
