TOWN & COUNTRY
My sister, brothers and I could hardly wait, along with the neighborhood children. We would go to the curb and look down the street for a risen trunk on the back of a modern sedan. We made sun visors with our tiny hands to shield the sunrays and glare to behold the ‘snowball man’, as we called him, cruising along to an anxiously gathered crowd of children looking for that perfect snow cone in every flavor you could ever imagine.
I can remember those hot summer days in the town I grew up in, called Cape Charles. It was, and still is, a beautiful town to live in. The town had many benefits for child’s play and adventure. The heart of downtown was the luxury of it all. You could smell the fresh fried crabs as you turned onto the main street. People from all over the Eastern Shore would come to shop in the magnificent town of Cape Charles. Quaint boutiques and lovely shops was the layout of the beautiful downtown. It seems as though everyone knew each other. It was as though we were a large family in a small town.
When I was a child there was one movie house (theater), and a beach view that would take your breath away at the banks of the shoreline. We were truly blessed. Then life took a turn and my family moved to the country. Truly, the country is a different lifestyle opposed to the town. Most of us walk to school every day in the town. That’s how quaint it was. In the country, I was exposed to my first ride on the school bus. It was very exciting to be with other children in one unit. However, everything was different from the town: no snow cones or fried crabs, but we ate plenty of grapes as my sister, brother and I sat under my uncle’s grapevine.
Every Spring we had to wait until the grapes were ripe. Oh my, but when they were ripe, there was no room for dinner! The country exposed us to long walks in the summer to a place called ‘the Sandhill.’ That was our nickname for this beautiful mountain of sand. There we would see the view of the same beach that I saw in the town that I grew up in. The town from the country that we moved to was approximately eight to nine miles in distance. It was marvelous! The country had lots of trees and hidden houses tucked away with beautiful gardens opposed to perfectly symmetric lines of houses with manicured lawns and a stately golf course as a backdrop – all so lovely.
All of this was well with me. Fresh fruits and vegetables were available in the well taken-care crops in the country. Melons and iced tea were our summer treats. Not to mention lots of homemade desserts in the country. I had the best of both worlds in the town and in the country. God has been good to me and everyone on the Eastern Shore, despite our tragedies and calamities we all have encountered.
The transitioning from town to country developed me into who I am today. There is no small way to adjust to any change. God will often times move us to another realm and place in life that we are not comfortable with. It could be transitioning to a new workplace across country, or in another state. To root up your entire family and move to a new land is always alarming, especially if you have children, as myself who had to adjust. I admit to crying myself to sleep at the tender age of eleven for many nights, missing my old friends and surroundings. It was a whole new world, from town to country, but God had a plan for my life and family.
Many of you are going through a transitioning at this moment: selling or buying new homes and moving to new neighborhoods, or embracing new friendships or new people that God has brought into your life. There are times our heavenly Father will remove people out of our lives, especially if they are holding us back or distracting us from all that God has called us to be. Many times this can include our own families as well as friends. It is a hard transition, we know, but God is faithful. Before the foundations of the Earth, God, our heavenly Father, has called you into a perfect plan that he has created just for you! God loves you so much and if there is anyone harming or trying to stop your growth in the Lord Jesus Christ, of certainty, God will transition you from town to country.
When my family and I moved from the town to the country, we left a terrible tragedy that erupted us for many years. When we moved to the country, our healing began. What an unassuming, wonderful place to heal: in the country with plush green trees, acres of beautiful farmland and beautiful vegetable crops, plus a penny local candy store with sour pickles! There were many long summer nights with open windows as we looked at the full moon, rubbing our bellies from homemade bread and the fresh catch of the ocean every day. No, it wasn’t a delicious custom snow cone, or a lovely boutique, but the quiet summer nights were just as nice.
God knew we needed that type of peace and tranquility to heal from our loss. It would be the same for you when God is transitioning you from one place to another. It would seem difficult at first, but you will adjust to all that God has prepared for you. Don’t be discouraged as life takes you from one place to another. God always heals our wounds and he knows exactly where to move you. We all have a town and country. Amen.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: (Heb. 11: 8, 9).”
Glory to God,
Helen Trower
