Two of our nephews Noah (going on 5), and Owen (3 and a half), are used to a small, connected world. Like most kids their age they have no concept of distance. Weekly they see the faces of their grandparents, aunts, and uncles on a computer screen broadcast live into their living room, dining room, or whatever other room they may find themselves. I do not mean to sound like an old fart, but the world has shrunk in just the last 10-20 years, making keeping in touch from places far a field easier.
Living in Kenya in 1990 it could take up to an hour to get through on the telephone to the United States. Even then you had to yell on the phone and wait 15 seconds for the delay. This made a conversation virtually impossible. I remember calling our cousins on Christmas, and having difficulty just communicating a basic greeting to them. By the time I was in high school, in the mid to late 90’s the phone lines were improved, but far from easy to use, and my parents and I had email-although not always reliable-between my sisters and us. This helped to shrink the thousands of miles that separated East Africa from my sisters at University in the states. Despite the distance, despite not talking to my sisters for months or seeing their faces for over a year at a time, we maintained a close relationship. We did not let distance and difficulty keep us from being a close-knit family.
I have spent the Christmas season without family before, and it is always a little difficult not being with those you love most. But it is especially difficult when you know everyone is gathered at Christmas except for you; this was the case this Christmas. All my cousins, and all my immediate family-including two nephews I have yet to meet-were gathered in Atlanta for Christmas. This combined with the birth of our son, John, made my yearning for family this Christmas season a bit stronger than usual. Kate and I called family on Christmas day via Skype to show everyone the new member of the family. My family gathered around the computer to see video of John for the first time, and for a moment we were all in the same room together, sharing this miracle on an important day (picture below, thanks Brady). Later that same day we beamed live images to Kate’s parents of John, and they, like any proud grandparents, were not eager to end the conversation and thus the moment of seeing their grandchild for the first time. The ease of sharing this moment helped to connect us at an important time in our lives.
Living in Kenya in 1990 it could take up to an hour to get through on the telephone to the United States. Even then you had to yell on the phone and wait 15 seconds for the delay. This made a conversation virtually impossible. I remember calling our cousins on Christmas, and having difficulty just communicating a basic greeting to them. By the time I was in high school, in the mid to late 90’s the phone lines were improved, but far from easy to use, and my parents and I had email-although not always reliable-between my sisters and us. This helped to shrink the thousands of miles that separated East Africa from my sisters at University in the states. Despite the distance, despite not talking to my sisters for months or seeing their faces for over a year at a time, we maintained a close relationship. We did not let distance and difficulty keep us from being a close-knit family.
I have spent the Christmas season without family before, and it is always a little difficult not being with those you love most. But it is especially difficult when you know everyone is gathered at Christmas except for you; this was the case this Christmas. All my cousins, and all my immediate family-including two nephews I have yet to meet-were gathered in Atlanta for Christmas. This combined with the birth of our son, John, made my yearning for family this Christmas season a bit stronger than usual. Kate and I called family on Christmas day via Skype to show everyone the new member of the family. My family gathered around the computer to see video of John for the first time, and for a moment we were all in the same room together, sharing this miracle on an important day (picture below, thanks Brady). Later that same day we beamed live images to Kate’s parents of John, and they, like any proud grandparents, were not eager to end the conversation and thus the moment of seeing their grandchild for the first time. The ease of sharing this moment helped to connect us at an important time in our lives.
Technology can ease the distance that separates us from family, but it cannot make us closer. My sister prays with Noah and Owen every night for family. This is much more powerful then any technology. Because of these prayers we are not just faces they see on Skype, but family that they care about and pray for. I pray that the same tightness, the same interest, concern, prayerfulness and participation in one another’s lives which characterized the family I grew up in will be the same for John, and Lord willing his brothers or sisters.
Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Cheers
1 comment:
Just three years ago we marveled as a family about how God intervened in two lives converging parallel lifelines to bring them together at your wedding in New Mexico. Now, we praise Him as He creates a new lifeline - John Richard - through your union together.
It is an awesome blessing to watch, albeit on a computer screen, you two fall in love with your son.
Dad
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