On a normal afternoon when 1:00 to 1:30 rolls around, there's usually a small flood of parents coming in to the office asking to release their children for an early dismissal. One young parent came in today, dressed in an army fatigue (if that's the correct term?). He asked to have his daughter picked up and I responded by asking if he had written her and early dismissal note.
"No," he replied, "I just got home."
Light. Bulb.
"Home?" I responded, "From deployment?"
He had been in Afghanistan for the past eight months. His daughter attends our high school, and picking her up to take her home was the very first stop he made on his way back into town. He had only seen her over Skype one time throughout his entire deployment.
She wasn't expecting him for another two weeks. (Oh sweet friends, I'm tearing up even as I write this!)
After an appropriate round of shrieks and clapping and estrogen-filled giddiness from the other secretaries, I turned on the man's video camera and we led him down to her classroom. She was in orchestra at the time, and when we opened the doors and he stepped inside, the students were in the middle of a piece. Not a single head turned. But as soon as the music stopped, forty teen-aged eyes darted towards the doorway, and the look on the face of the soldier's daughter (oh precious!) is one I will never forget. Hands to her face, she immediately began crying and ran to embrace her father. The rest of the class must have realized what was happening because they immediately started to clap and cheer.
Oh golly! I'm tearing up again just like I teared up then!
The moment kept replaying itself in my mind as I drove home. It resonated so deeply with me, almost as if I had lived it before. My father's never been in the military and I never spent eight months away from him growing up. Why then couldn't I remove this memory from my head?
Do you think it's because I did spend time away from my God and Father? 17 years away. But he made a point to track me down and pull me out of darkness, and he did so with a loving embrace. And although sin and folly consistently blind my view, there was one single moment in my life, one clear, precise, beautiful moment when the music stopped, my distractions were gone, and I saw for the first time how deep his love is for me, how far he had to go to pursue me, and how eternal that pursuit will be.
And with my hands to my face covering my tears, I ran to embrace my Father.
What an amazing picture of the gospel. ❤
At one point while walking to the girl's classroom, I thanked the man for his service. He replied, "I do it so that one day my children won't have to." Just as Christ came down on the cross, taking the weight of my sin, so that one day... I wouldn't have to, but instead could stand before the King, faultless, righteous, and spend forever just being with my Father.
Only then, I will be the one who is finally coming home. :)
Such a blessed afternoon! :)
Such a blessed afternoon! :)
Agape,
CC
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