I went for a walk tonight. It didn’t seem like a big deal at first. Just a normal evening; my son, who is soon to graduate, is off on his senior trip. The house is VERY quiet and it feels as if something is wrong. He asked that I pick up his car from school and bring it home so it didn’t sit in the parking lot all week. As I thought about it, I am down to just one more major event in his life where I need to be on the school campus… his graduation, and it hit me. 
The run has ended.
We moved to Raleigh around 1978 and started a new home off Elizabeth Drive, down Buffaloe Road at the Neuse River. We all felt like Tom and Huck living so close to the river. Our days and weekends were spent playing down at the muddy, drifting water while we adjusted to new friends and places. I was around 14 and went to East Millbrook, then Enloe High School. My Junior and Senior years were at Friendship Christian School, and thus the walk began. I was 16 when I first attended, then finished my High School diploma, went off to college, then back here to Raleigh where all of my brother’s kids started attending Friendship. 
My son was born in 2002 and his journey started just a few years later here at Friendship. Being who I am, I looked at the years through the grid of what it cost and felt like he got what he needed for the next jump-off point in life. And tonight, May 17th, Elizabeth and I walked around the church and school while I reminisced of times past.(Mine and his) Those events, poured out like sand from an hourglass, with the millions of memories fill the beach of my mind. I sink my toes deep into those black and white cherished images and find a quietness around the fact that I have no more children to run this part of the race with. This run is literally done, and all that remains are the precious memories of seeing my young boy, through all of the tough times we’ve faced together, grow to be the man he is becoming and realize… I couldn’t be more proud of him, happier with him, and will love him even beyond this side of eternity.
What the future holds I can’t say. He has plans, and we will see what God has, but just for today and for tonight, I want to say ‘thank you’ to all of those who invested in my son, who prayed for him, who supported and helped him through the tough dark years of divorce, and I want to thank God for getting us here. Without Him… we would not have made it this far.
Just a prayer of ‘thanks for all You’ve done.
