My room and many other rooms in my house are invaded by boxes ready for August to hit so they can be opened and moved back into my normal life and routine and home an hour away, at school. But for now, my life here seems purposeful, restful, and beautiful.
This summer has marked the first time, excluding school breaks, that I have been at home long-term since high school. (And we all know how much change goes on during three years of college... a whole freaking truck load of it.) Going into my senior year of college, it seems intentional that this would be the last time I get to truly embrace home before I graduate and begin life physically apart from all that represents my childhood. It has been a soul-searching few weeks. Full of figuring out my callings in life, enjoying my giftings in life, and appreciating all that I have in this home, in this town, and with the people who have known me forever.
As much as there is beauty in the new; there is beauty in new friendships, in change, in new homes and new experiences. I think often, I find myself favoring it over the old. And I am beginning to realize that makes no sense.
There is immense purpose and beauty in the old. In friendships that have endured for more years then you can count on your fingers at once, in the little bedroom that has always been yours as long as you have lived, there is beauty in the neighbors that have seen you go from a child to an adult, there is beauty in spending time on the street you learned to ride a bike on, there is beauty in Sunday mornings at church in the place you were baptized at over five years ago. There is beauty in reuniting with mentors that you haven't seen for ages that dramatically influenced your walk with God, there is beauty in running errands with old friends that can equally embrace silence as they can embrace words.
Sometimes, in some ways, it is easier to throw off your past and embrace all that is good and new that comes into your life. I know that attempt and pursuit well. Strategically avoiding people I used to know at the gym and hiding from old classmates in Target, I know it well, trust me. I like my life, as it is, a new clean-slate without the baggage of rebellious years.
But if we throw off our past and forget the purpose that God wove into it so intentionally, then we leave out a big chunk of the puzzle that God intended for.
Sure, old friendships come with more junk, with more hurt and more struggles but they also come with endurance, they come with a deep understanding of each other that only time can bring you, they come with a solid foundation, they come with a sisterhood and mutual understanding that can't be formed overnight.
Sure, old stomping grounds come with painful memories, they come with old emotions that may come back to haunt you, they come with junk. But they also come with an extraordinary amount of overcoming, they come with joy and happy memories, they come with purpose because you had to go through stuff to get you to where you are at today.
The new will eventually be old, and you can't just throw off everything vintage and rusty and antique in your life because you don't want to deal with it. You can't forget the beauty that comes with the old. Hold onto it. Remember how God used it all for His purpose.
