My daughter turned 9 yesterday. I wish I could say it was the best birthday ever, but it wasn’t quite that for her. You see my daughter has been handling this whole quarantine thing great, but tonight everything came to the surface. Her party this year wasn’t going to look like the ones she remembered…And she said this was the worst birthday ever.

She wanted to see all her friends, but couldn’t.

She wanted to have a party out somewhere fun, but couldn’t.

Her feelings of missing her friends and of normal life spilled out as tears fell.

And I can’t say I blame her. These last few months have been hard. We are restless, bored and lonely. We miss our normal routines, and vacations and friends. Things are hard, and life does not feel normal. When she said all of this my heart ached–it ached for all the things we are missing out on. It ached for this little heart I am taking care of and it ached for how challenging this has been for me as a mom.

So when she said all of this I knew I had to do something, and I got an idea. I asked her if she would like to go back to our old neighbor where she was born. The place she lived for her first 4 years of her life. We lived on a beach, where she loved to play and a neighborhood she loved to explore.

That did just the trick, she was excited to go out and do something different tonight. We packed up the car and went back to the place she so lovingly remembered.

And as we arrived at the beach and walked the familiar neighborhood I was thinking of how so often life doesn’t go the way I want. Those times big emotions rise to the surface and I too feel angry, disappointed and lonely and running to my God is the only thing that helps.

His arms are familiar.

His promises I know by heart.

The paths I walk to Him are worn in.

I have walked towards Him so many times before, that I know the way—He is my one true home.

And in our old neighborhood, my daughter saw the beach that she remembered playing on so many times.

And she found the salt air and waves that calmed her heart.

We saw old friends that we remembered.

We walked the streets that we knew so well.

And in that place—the place from where she came from, she found some peace tonight. And I know in my heart that when we run to the arms of our Father, the very arms from which we came from, we can find all that we are looking for too.

Sometimes all that it takes is to return to our first home and that is where we will find joy to soothe our aching hearts.