The Brokenness of Distance

Whenever my eldest granddaughter, or her brother, speak to me, from the “cold faraway country”, she poses her wet question: “I miss you so much. When will you come to visit us?". Distance is devastating. Since they left, I suddenly developed a sensitivity to certain words. It has become difficult for me to hear someone talk about his grandchildren, or to hear one of the grandchildren call his grandfather. It is a word of just a few letters that can make a river flow on my face. I am not envying anyone! I am talking about my longings. Did God allow me, for the sake of solidarity, to experience what my peers are suffering, those whom their "homeland" has deprived of enjoying what their Lord had bestowed upon them? Lebanon, like most of its neighbors, is a country of major embezzlements. I am not talking about people's money that has been hidden by fraud and corruption in our country, but rather about it and what is more difficult than it, about the emotions that the leaders of our country have decided that we do not deserve. Last night, my granddaughter almost snatched a new promise from me to visit them.