Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning and the sun goes down about three in the day.

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” -- Nelson Mandela

For as long as I can remember, my family and I have visited my mom's extended family in Kentucky and Tennessee. We've always driven the some odd fourteen hours that it takes to get there, and with a family of six, that definitely has gotten interesting at times! Before the days of iPods and in-car DVD players (or at least before we had them), those hours were full of looking at the scenery (mountains aka hills to Texan kids are quite the sight to see!) and falling asleep to country hits on cassette (yes, cassette and not CD!). Restless Heart, Reba, Alabama....it's still hard for me to keep from yawning when I hear "Love In The First Degree"!

Although we've visited in the summertime before, our favorite time to visit has always been in the fall. You'll see more colors that God has painted the trees on all those hills than you thought existed! It's beautiful. And if you're lucky, maybe even a little snow.

And so, tomorrow we will take yet another trek northeast and experience all the sights and sounds that have become so familiar yet never get old. It's such a comfort, it's hard to put into words. Through the hustle and bustle of life and it's struggles, sometimes you can tend to forget who you really are. Situations and people change you and you may not even realize it. You're older, wiser, different, but inside really still the same. But it's like when I step into my great-aunt's house that has barely changed since I was in diapers, or bear hug my cousin and hear her signature laugh, I remember. The real me -- two and a half years old and decked out in a clown costume, running right into a stranger's house while trick-or-treating -- comes out. And she was always there, it just took a little reminder. It's amazing to me how much one can learn about themselves just by getting back to your roots...roots that you may not even remember or realize you had. I see my feistiness and sense of humor in several cousins, I meet other cousins I never knew existed, and it all starts to piece itself together like an heirloom quilt. The pieces were always there, I just didn't fully realize it.

I need You so much closer. So, come on.

I attended the out-of-town wedding of one of my cousins today. She’s in her forties, and was just married for the first time. My uncle, her dad, spoke of her patience in waiting for the man God would have to be her husband, and how sometimes she didn’t know if he even existed or was a part of God’s plan for her life. And I sat there thinking about how hard it must have been for her to see all her friends get married, and her sister find a husband and have a child, while she was still single. But when I saw the look of pure joy on her face today that never left her, and the adoration for her new husband, I know she must have been thinking that all that waiting, all that pain was worth it.

And the groom! Even a blind person could see how much he loves that woman. Ephesians 5:25 was mentioned in the ceremony, where husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loves the church. I’ve heard that verse so many times, but man, today it just seemed to click with me. His love for us isn’t an obligatory, stale, “churchy” love. It’s the love of a groom for his bride, a husband for his wife.

So many times we get this twisted and we’re trying to find that love in a man or a woman, a human who will fail us but yet we’re taking our whole beings to them in selfishness saying, “Here, meet my needs! Fix me and complete me and love me unconditionally”. When, first off, they’re human. They can’t fix or complete us anymore than we can fix or complete ourselves. And if we don’t realize and fully grasp that the Author of true Love sent His only Son to die on a cross because He loved us that much? We’re really missing the point.

He’s really been overwhelming my heart lately with examples of His love, in the smallest things. As if He needed to go to any more lengths or measures to prove His love to me! But He’s just that good. Like right now, I’m on my way home and I can see what looks like a thousand stars through the sunroof. The same God who loves me knows each one of those stars by name, even the ones I can’t see. Wow.

And as I type this, Issac Slade of The Fray is singing, “Oh, be My baby. Oh, and I’ll look after you. You are so beautiful to Me” through my iPod earphones.

There’s just moments, you know? Moments where you forget the silliness of life and realize what and Who is really important. Moments you’re totally overwhelmed, in the best way possible.