our grandbaby

8^th August

A few weeks ago Julian’s face would have set in that oh so familiar way of his at even the barest whisper of the word ‘retirement’. He couldn’t possibly retire. He didn’t have enough money. (Secretly did he want to? His job sounds cushy to me! The chairs are apparently far more comfortable than the ones we have at home! And if he slept on the job due to his illness no one seemed to mind.) Now, 7 weeks on from that particular evening at Susie’s he has been urged to take at least a month’s sick leave and the word retirement slips off his tongue as easily as apple juice or peanut butter. I wonder if Abraham’s departure in Genesis 12 was as sudden!

Today we had the estate agent round to value the bungalow with a view to it going on the market just as soon as I have waxed the last floor and tidied all round. Only a few short weeks back this would have been unthinkable. Julian needed a base from which he could go to work and have his treatment. Today it was the right thing to do and I have peace. Yesterday I said to Ben that I felt like Abraham, going on a journey but not knowing where. And he reminded me that I need not feel lost. Wise words. No, we are not lost. God is going ahead of us, just as He did with Abraham. Today I do not need to know where I am going. I just need to trust Him and wait for Him to uncover the next pathway, open the next door, turn on the next light. I need to listen to His Voice and obey His call.

I also need to backtrack some more. Last Tuesday, July 30^th, at 9.44 a momentous event took place. Most of us were going about our daily mundane tasks. I was baking chocolate cakes! But in a hospital room in Bristol a tiny baby boy was on a journey. So determined it was more like a mission. 3 ½ weeks early and during a labour of less than 5 hours Raphael Daniel entered our lives and rapidly our hearts. Julian was on sick leave. God’s timing indeed. That meant we were able to travel down and meet our adorable first grandbaby. As well as spend time with Stephen and Lynsey and Ben and some of Lynsey’s family. It also meant we could look around houses in the Bristol area. Suddenly something which seemed so ‘wrong’ a few weeks ago just seemed so ‘right’. We didn’t find anything suitable. But the searching has begun. There was no call to be heard that we were to go to any particular place. But the journey is beginning. Maybe.

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