After my father’s early retirement from medicine and his 35 different missionary travels around the world, my mother found a piece of land on the French Broad River near Knoxville that she knew he would love. It was 18 acres of farm and woodland. My father, realizing her brilliance, bought the land. Affectionately known as “Tuckahoe,” named for the creek that laves its north boundary line, we instantly knew God had blessed it. My father hunted, fished, farmed, built a log home and a barn, while he became the primary caregiver for my mother who declined there with Alzheimer’s for 17 years until her passing. The family loved and enjoyed my father’s soul refreshing place of solace. The rich bottom land had apparently been enjoyed by the indigenous people many years before, because we found many flint arrowheads when we tilled the garden. The property brought great joy to all those who came there. The peace that washed over you when you drove the gravel road, walked onto the wrap around porch and heard the river, dropped your blood pressure by 10 points. We canoed, tubed, waded, and fished in that cool rolling river. We hunted deer, turkey, and other game birds. We drove the old John Deere and helped plant and harvest the yearly garden. Writing this, I am filled with nostalgia for the life events we celebrated with family and friends there: birthdays, holidays, graduations, funerals, reunions. We also celebrated God’s creation itself from season to season, year to year, high water and low water, living and dying. We watched as bucks jousted in rut and as speckled fawns emerged in the Spring. We watched the spectacle of a firefly show, as millions of them covered the field in Spring… It was better than any firework show I have ever seen and much more calming. A few years ago, tortured by the prospect of having to sell the place when my parents had both passed away, we tried to make the property a vacation rental. Though it was a popular spot that received high ratings, this became untenable, because it exhausted my sister, and I was in ministry a 1000 miles away and couldn’t help care for the place or the guests. After much prayer and wringing of hands we sold it. We decided it was time for someone else’s family to celebrate life and God’s creation there, while we continued cling tightly to the memories and tell the stories.
As King David was speaking to Israel, he said, “We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.” (1 Chronicles 29:15 NLT-SE) And the writer of Hebrews, speaking of heaven, picking up where the words of the Hebrew King left off, says, “For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.” (Hebrews 13:14 NLT-SE) My family is forever thankful for the blessings and memories from Tuckahoe, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart.” (Ecc. 3:11a)
Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all.