Some material things were harder to part with than others when we returned to Japan in 2008 for an undetermined length of time, but parting with our children and grandchildren was the most difficult of all. Although I was excited about seeing my previous students and doing ministry I loved, the thought of leaving our family was excruciating. People made comments like, “I don’t think I could ever go to a foreign country and leave my kids and grandkids,” seeming to imply that since we were doing that, we must not love our family as much as they loved theirs. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

A line from the song, “Worthy is the Lamb,” refers to Jesus as “the darling of heaven.” I had never thought of Jesus being the “darling of heaven,” but I knew our grandchildren were my darlings on earth. How in the world was I going to leave them behind? As I struggled, I read about the Philistines choosing cows that had been separated from their calves and hitching them to a cart that would carry the ark of the Lord back to Israel. The test was that if those cows still took the ark back to Israel leaving their calves behind, the Philistines would know that God was in it. (I Samuel 6:7-11)

Verse 12 says, “Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh (in Israel), keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left.” Those cows obediently carried the ark back to Israel, but mooed mournfully every step of the way. As Donn and I walked down the ramp to board the plane that would take us to Japan on August 10, 2008, I thought, If this mom/grandma walks down that ramp and gets on that plane leaving her kids/grandkids behind, you’ll know that God is in it.

Later, as I unsuccessfully fought tears on the plane, I said, God, How in the world am I going to survive away from our family for the next three to five years? Desperate for answers, I pulled out my Bible. I found these amazing words in my devotional scriptures for the day, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).”

There was no “ram in a thicket” this time; the sacrifice had to be made. But God was promising to sustain us as we made the most difficult sacrifice of our lives.

Father, help us remember that sometimes the path of obedience and sacrifice is as simple as taking one step at a time, “lowing all the way” and trusting you to sustain us. Amen