Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

In 1844, Thomas Haynes Bayly plagiarized Francis Davison's 1602 Poetical Rhapsody when he wrote the poem Isle of Beauty. In doing so, he popularized the beautiful words "absence makes the heart grow fonder."

He's right, of course. We often don't realize how wonderful something -- or someONE -- is until we're missing it.

This past week, Ben has been home from Virginia Tech on Spring Break. It just feels right to have him here. On his first night home, I realized just how much I missed his infectious laughter, his very blunt way of sharing his thoughts, and the friendship of my son (not to mention having another guy around the house!). It's going to be tought to send him back to school this weekend.

Becky is also heading out this weekend for an overnighter with our Youth Group. Meanwhile, Beth is preparing to take off on her own Spring Break adventure. She'll be spending next week with her aunt, uncle, & cousins in Tennessee.

And Margo, my beautiful wife, has already departed for Kentucky. Her mother is preparing to undergo surgery for a very serious cancerous tumor, and Margo is grabbing some time together with her mom before the surgery. Then she'll stay as long as needed to help her mother through the recovery. We're thinking it will be a month or two.

When I woke up this morning, our dogs began scouring the house looking for Margo. They have this rather wild and noisy routine of greeting each other in the morning. After a while, when the dogs realized Margo's not here, they just sat down outside our bedroom door and kind of pouted.

Well, if absence makes the heart grow fonder, my heart is going to grow a whole lot over the next few weeks. It's only Day One and I'm already feeling that emptiness. (But I'm also praising God for the wonders of modern technology. I may not be able to give my wife a kiss goodnight, but we can chat on cell phones several times each day!)