It was a simple, harmless, matter-of-fact thought: I’ll visit my parents and help out a little extra during the month of December. Instead of going home in between their appointments and Christmas, I’ll just do my work from the upstairs office and enjoy the extra time with them.

That was almost three months ago. And I’m still here.

But I’m soon returning to the Milwaukee area to pack my things, assisted by my three siblings in their various roles of taking care of my parents in my absence or coming to my apartment (yes, the one with the view) to help me load and drive the truck back to Indiana. My things will go into storage until…God tells me otherwise.

Please, please, please understand that I’m thrilled, honored, and humbled to get to be with my parents and assist them in whatever ways will be most helpful. And please, please, please understand that I’m grateful beyond words that in God’s amazing wisdom, He placed me into a line of work that I can do from literally anywhere in the world.

And with the start of the actual moving process only two days away, please, please, please understand that…I’m suddenly scared, overwhelmed, and feeling inadequate for the task…or any task, for that matter.

But tonight I remembered the very first blog post I wrote for this site almost two years ago. I read it again, wept, laughed, and decided to repost its “prophetic” words here today. So please forgive the recycled post, but I need this tonight!

A little over two years ago, I began a new job and moved into a new apartment in a new location. “New” was clearly the key word. One of my favorite “new” purchases after moving was a 14-inch square gray-and-black-framed chalkboard that hangs on the wall in my bathroom. I have never written on it. Not once. It’s a clean slate. Literally.

Two of my favorite verses in the Bible are found in Lamentations 3:22 and 23 (NLT): “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.” So there is something about the visual reminder of that “clean slate” every day that reminds me that God gives me brand new mercies each morning! How amazing is THAT? Actually, since that is a totally rhetorical question, I’m going to write it again and end it properly: How amazing is THAT!

A few moments ago I walked from one side of my apartment to the other and dropped off some freshly folded towels in the bathroom. As I turned to leave, I glanced up at the never-touched-by-chalk chalkboard on the wall. I stopped to wipe away tears of joy as I thanked Him that I’m facing each new day, each change, with fresh mercy!

And that is precisely why, when I move to a new apartment to start a new job in a new location, I will once again hang my clean slate smack-dab in the center of my bathroom wall. After all, not everything needs to change!

[One final comment, 2/21/14: Yes, I’m bringing my plain, boring chalkboard with me, and yes, it will be one of the first things I place in my new space. God is good…all the time!]