Lately, something bothered me.
In early 2024, when Sarah-Faith turns 7 and starts Grade 1, I’ll likely need to be in the States for a season for the Kitedreams book launch.
That means, if we move as a family for a season overseas, Sarah-Faith’s first year in primary school will be disrupted.
It shouldn’t cause anxiety, really- after all, we did plan for us to be in the mission field.
But it does.
Will we be away be for weeks or months? How about missions? Will we move from Africa and back? I don’t know.
One thing is certain- the uncertainty.
I worry. I worry about what I don’t know about compulsory Grade 1 registration in Singapore. I worry about what i don’t know.
I hide my worries well in my heart, whisper them to Cliff only when the kids are asleep.
But that night before we went to bed, Sarah-Faith said, “Mama, I want you & I to be together forever.”
Of all nights, she chose that night to say,
“Wherever you go, I will follow.”
“Like in the Runaway Bunny?”
The Runaway Bunny is an ageless classic about the story of a Mama Bunny who pursues her little bunny wherever it goes.
It reads, “Once there was a little bunny who wanted to run away. So he said to his mother, “I am running away.”
“If you run away,” said his mother, “I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.”
“If you run after me,” said the little bunny, “I will become a fish in a trout stream and I will swim away from you.”
“If you become a fish in a trout stream,” said his mother, I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.”
You get the idea.
“Yes, but YOU’RE the runaway bunny, Mama. I will follow you.”
It was the way she said it, that brought tears to my eyes. I’m not sure if she understood the gravity of her words.
“To Africa, even?”
“Yes Mama.”
“How about America, Nepal, Indonesia, Canada?”
“Everywhere, Mama. Even South America!”
As I heard her words, tears welled up.
A warmth filled my heart as I felt God speak to me, “No matter where you go, my goodness and mercy will follow you.”
The root word for “follow” means “pursue.” Its Hebrew word is radaph, meaning “chase.”
So if God’s goodness pursues us, what shall we fear?