Friends,

Vacations are a pain, especially with little kids. We could easily take time off, and spend leisure time in our own homes, but you rarely hear about people taking these “staycations”. Instead, we feel compelled to get all stressed out over packing lists, travel logistics, motion sick toddlers and we often spending lots of money to be somewhere else. I love working on projects around the house, and more than once, I’ve wished to spend a week’s vacation at home to knock out that one big project; however, when the rubber hits the road, I would never forego my family’s annual trip to Lake Hiawassee in North Carolina. That lake in the mountains that no one seems to know about is part of our family’s DNA, and I am determined to make sure my children always think of that cabin on the lake as a sacred spot.

It was just over a month ago when we received my wife’s cancer diagnosis, and realized that her treatment would certainly interrupt all of our family’s vacations. Our first priority was to make sure she was going to receive the care she needed, and then we frantically began to plan how to get our older son to Lake Hiawassee for the family vacation, even though we needed to stay behind. It took several conference calls with the grandmothers, and a long phone call to American Airlines, but we found a way for grandmother number one to fly down with our son, drop him off with grandmother number two, and immediately fly back. Grandmother number two then took our son to the lake, where he is getting to know his extended family for eight days. On Monday that grandmother will fly back and stay for a couple of days. This week we have been in appointments all day, and nearly every day, but seeing pictures of our son surrounded by the people that loved him before he was even born, in a place that means so much to us, has filled us with much needed joy.

Places are important, and when place names come up in scripture, they usually bear more significance than what is immediately apparent. Read through Genesis, and you’ll see that the Oak of Mamre isn’t just a nice shady place to hang out, but that is where Sarah and Abraham had a divine encounter. If you’re at a well, and single, watch out, because chances are that is where a patriarch and matriarch met and fulfilled a divine promise, and you could be next! Are you crossing an obscure stream called the Jabbock? You could be walking on the ground where Jacob got his hip dislocated beating up an angel. Places, like time, often masquerade as something mundane, but once you scratch beneath the surface, there is some significance that can no longer go unnoticed. A lake in the middle of nowhere to you may be the place where my family musters to take stock of how we’ve grown and changed.

I am determined for my sons to know these sacred places that are often far off, and inconvenient to go to, so that way he will never remember a summer without the feeling of jump off the dock into the abnormally clean and deep waters that feels like love for my family.

Blessings,

Nick