The movers packed up our possessions. Fifteen years of living overseas went into six shipping crates that we won’t see for more than a month. They even took away our car. Everything will be loaded on a ship bound for Texas. The apartment seems so empty now, with only the “furnished” items remaining and what we will take in our suitcases.
We left many things behind because we won’t need them in Texas. We gave away most of our winter and my work clothes to the Chinese people who take care of our building. Susan gave things to her friends that we have been hanging on to “just in case” we needed them.
I have been filling out paperwork for a year in preparation to leave Beijing. It is much more complicated this time because I am retiring. I need to make sure I will receive my retirement pay and benefits. This will be our first time to live in the U.S. since I joined the Foreign Service, so it is a bit different than the other six times we moved.
Besides all the things we must do, we are saying our goodbyes to our friends and coworkers. We will lose contact with most of them after we retire, and they move on to new assignments. We won’t see many of them after we leave Beijing.
That is something like our lives. We are almost finished. Our brief life will soon be over. We will leave material things behind because we won’t need them in Heaven. We can only take the love of GOD, and the lives we pointed to Him.
Preparation for our final move began from the foundations of the World and came at a great cost. Before we even knew or loved Him, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NIV). We won’t have to fill out paperwork or go through complicated procedures. We just need to accept the precious gift Jesus paid for our sins.
We won’t have to make sure we get our pay and benefits. “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim 1:12 KJV). Make sure you are ready for that final move and don’t forget to tell others to get ready, because we are almost finished.
Wayne Lance (2016)