This morning as I sat perched on a rock praying up toward the painted sky, the front door of my house opened and my 14 year old daughter walked out.
She had a leash in her hand and was leading her beloved Siberian Husky on a final walk.
I watched the two make their way down the long driveway toward the road they’d traveled together many times.
She was saying goodbye. Letting go.
I felt like I was standing on sacred ground as I watched her, with breaking heart, take a step of obedience she’d spent months hoping she wouldn’t be asked to take.
I was witnessing an act of worship and felt almost like an intruder.
Their steps were slow and deliberate as they walked back and forth in front of the house. So unlike the countless times over the years they’d run along that road.
It was as if the dog knew something was different this time. Like somehow she understood this was a last and she was eager to soak up the moment.
And I realized something as I watched ... I was sobbing. Breaking for her brokenness and yet grateful for her willingness.
Because there’s a people sitting in darkness half a world from where I sat this morning in the light. A people God is sending us to, much the same as He sent precious Jesus.
And I imagined His hurting heart as He watched His Son giving up what He’d rather not have given up at all, trusting the reward was worth the cost.
My daughters are walking in obedience. Not because they have the same conviction we do, but because they TRUST our conviction. Because they believe us when we say there is nothing we’ll be asked to give up that we wouldn’t choose to if we could see the end from the beginning.
My sweet child doesn’t *feel* good about what’s being asked of her, but she spent hours yesterday making her dog a new collar and leash. She bathed and fluffed her. She slept with her.
And then she woke early this morning to truly surrender by letting her go.
It’s holy ground on which I stand because I see the smile that still wreaths her beautiful face and I know it’s only there because God has dipped low and drawn near.
May I be found as faithful as my Abigail.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. James 4:7,8