There have been so many times in the last year that I wished we could just pack it up over there and unpack it, fully fleshed out, over here, and just get on with business as usual.
…
It doesn’t work like that.

What was “fully equipped” there is “why the heck did I pack useless junk” over here.

Everything is new. Everything is raw and unfinished and buried in mud. Everything is a struggle. Everything is hard.
Nothing comes neatly packaged.
…
And yet…

This is WHY we did it. To build and discover our own treasures from the rawness, not to merely unpack and set in place the treasures we already had.
To struggle, to learn, to bleed, and to end up knowing that we did it. We made it through the hard. We survived the struggle bus and learned the true value of treasures.

Sometimes, the greatest treasures look like rocks. Or manure. Or wood chips. Or used tires. Or bats. Or scraggly little trees.
These are the things a kingdom is built from.

And sometimes, I still wish we could have just packed it up there and unpack it here and just get on with the business of living
…
But then I would miss the journey.

Every hard, backbreaking, heartaching, painful, faltering step has value.

And someday, when the dreams have been written on the land,
We can look back and say
“Look how far we have walked”