When my husband, Ken, and I moved into our first home, we had already been married for almost two and a half years, but, until then, had been living on a bus as part of a traveling ministry with other young adults. Making a house our home brought me so much joy! We had an extra bedroom, our “spare” room, and we kept it ready for family and friends who came to visit on occasion.

Once we had kids, that spare room became a nursery. In fact, our children brought so much life into our home that they filled up every part of our home with joy and laughter… and life! And while I wished that we had an extra bedroom when we had guests come to visit, we always found a place for everyone to sleep.

Recently, our youngest made her way into the world and now Ken and I have added another description to ourselves: empty nesters. We have a spare room again. It is filled with my grandmother’s bedroom furniture all ready for my granddaughter when she, or other family and friends, come to visit. But, it’s empty.

The first few months, as I walked by that bedroom every day, I focused on the emptiness. A little sadness that a segment of our lives as we knew it for more than thirty years has come to an end. But recently as I walked past, my heart gave way to a flood of memories of story times, laughter, tears and bedtime prayers. I realized that even though the world calls it ’empty’, our home and our hearts, are full to the brim with so many beautiful blessings God chose to bestow on us. And we are grateful.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT) helps to put this into perspective. “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” Our season of parenting hasn’t ended. It’s just different. And as long as we get to walk each season out with God, we know He has a plan and we choose to put our trust in Him. The really wonderful thing is: you can too!