Moving is hard. I find the last bit of packing and loading a truck the most challenging. The final items strewn everywhere around the house seem endless sometimes; they aren’t enough of “one thing” for a box category of their own, but somehow they could take up multiple boxes if thrown together. They end up in the boxes labeled miscellaneous and sit in the garage for a year or so.

There are a lot of little things that make moving a challenge, such as finding new stores and restaurants you like to go to, finding a new barber and a new dog sitter.

Then there are some bigger things that make it hard. Loss comes to mind—leaving people and things you love behind. And then the subsequent challenge of learning to love new people and things.

Moving can be especially hard for teenagers, who already have a lot of the anxiety about fitting in when they have been somewhere for years, let alone when they are the “new kid”.

Some of our toughest years in mortality can be our teenage years. Everything is changing. Our bodies, our minds, our spirits, our social skills.

Friends change. Classes change. Priorities change. We need to learn as much as possible so we can be ready for the real world.

Our teenage years are the hard, and often awkward, transition from child to adult. We are expected to put off childish things and grow up.

So, as you might imagine, I was struggling with some major dad guilt this past August when I moved my family for the second time in five years for a job opportunity. The younger two especially dreaded the move.

I spent a lot of time pondering and praying. How could I make this easier? One day, several months into this move, I had a simple thought.

We know very little about Jesus between his birth and His ministry which is recorded in the New Testament. But here are three things we do know——

1. We know he was in the temple with the teachers and they were asking him questions. He was giving them answers.
2. We know he grew “in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
3. And we know he moved. Twice.

Jesus moved.

So, in a very tender moment for me, as I studied early one morning, I realized that the God of this world who possesses the power to move mountains and seas, could relate to my two boys in a very real way. He knew exactly what it was like to leave the people and the things he loved behind and he knew what it was like to learn to love new people and things.

I’m not sure why Jesus had to come to earth as a baby and grow into adulthood. I suppose He needed to experience mortality like everyone else. This gives Him great ability to empathize with each of us whether child, teenager or adult.

And this reassures me: the next time life is strewn everywhere and there is no apparent box to put my problems into and the next time my boys are wondering about a challenge they are facing, I can just invite Him in and let Him look at it all with us and hear Him tell us, “I know exactly how you feel.”

^{Lead photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels}