At Last

We are clearly past any danger of Winter snow. (hope that declaration doesn't prove false)

It just seems so very, well, Spring-like, out there this past week. The milder temperatures combined with something special about the sunlight, the return of birdsong to the mornings, and now a whole lot of rain, are all together announcing that Winter is past, Spring is HERE!

The lift in my spirits may be all of these, but I also attribute this new lightness that I feel to a phone call received in the middle of Monday night.

"Hi Mom!"

My very-most-best-favorite words.

Nathaniel called after two months of non-stop work in Iraq. Two months which, for his family at home, had begun to seem like an eternity. Evidently, the Iraqi elections had required a whole lot of support from our helicopters, which then required a whole lot of maintenance from Nathaniel and his crew. They worked around the clock; each shift extended and working until the guys could only stumble to their beds and crash until it was time to get up and do it all over again.

Only Monday did Nathaniel begin to receive a few of the multitude of letters that we had written to him beginning in early February, and was surprised to hear that we had sent cookies. I have since learned that he got the cookies we sent and they are evidently not too bed after a month en route. (But he's 23, a guy, and a soldier.)

He sounded great. He sounded like my son. My Nathaniel.

Since Monday we have had a brief instant message chat online, and I have seen signs of life on his Facebook.

And I have not ceased in my grateful praise and thanksgiving to my Lord, who knew all along where Nathaniel was, what he was doing, and was indeed holding him close and working on his heart.

As a mother my heart was concerned over his long silence. Yet my prayers, (and I take no credit for this) had turned to reliance on God's perfect wisdom and knowledge of the situation. Our Lord has a plan for Nathaniel, who is now an adult, which is for my son's good, and for my Lord's glory. I asked the Lord to help me to trust Him as He worked this plan out for Nathaniel; that He would be glorified not only in Nathaniel's life, but in my response to whatever that plan might involve. Loosing my grip of control over my son- which was a fiction anyway- took the balm of the Word and the ministry of the Spirit as I prayed over these past many weeks.

God graciously allowed us relief from the silence with that phone call. His plan might have been different, yet no more or less glorifying of Himself in the ultimate outcome. But this time the plan included a drop of mercy for us as well.

So, sing away birds of Spring, my heart sings along with you.