We are moving at the end of this week. My husband and I are both going to be teaching at a Christian school in Largo, Fl. It’s close to Tampa (home for the past seven years), but far enough that we can’t commute.

We’ve moved before – halfway around the country and halfway around the world. This time, we’re just moving to the next county over. Should be a piece of cake, right? We don’t have to ship anything in a container across the Atlantic. We don’t have to wrap every little thing in bubble wrap so it can survive a thousand miles in a U-Haul. We don’t even have to take our clothes off the hangers.

As far as logistics go, this move is a piece of cake.

My heart, though, is a different story. In my heart, this move is just like the others: we are leaving a place we love, people we love, and everything that is comfortable and familiar. We have to move into a new house, go to a new school, join a new church, and make new friends. And though we know God orchestrated it all – He has made that very clear – it is still difficult.

I thought it quite ironic that my map to the new house said “This route requires tolls.” The first time I plugged in the address and saw that, I teared up a little. Those of you who have experienced a move know the toll it takes on you. Anytime you have to uproot and replant is hard. Especially when the place you’re leaving is a place you love.

So this week, we will put in practice something we learned from past moves: we will embrace the “tolls”. It does no good to pretend there is no cost, no pain in a move. But it does great good to admit that leaving is hard. It is important to say goodbye to special friends and special places, to revisit beautiful memories made.

Moving is hard. But for me, it is a reminder that this earth is not my home. I am an alien here, a wanderer. My home, my citizenship, is in heaven. Until I reach my eternal home, I will seek to honor God, to go through the doors He opens, to follow the paths He lays before me.

The “tolls” He requires are always for our good, to grow us and strengthen us and make us more like Him. And, though the journeys are sometimes painful, the “end of the story” is settled, and it is beautiful.