Joshua 21 details the giving out of cities and land to the Levites. It mentions the descendants of Aaron specifically. By lot, by the Lord’s choice, each tribe gave up some of their cities and the land around it to the Levites. The Levites were to have pasturelands for their livestock.

This reminded me of the recent lesson about how we’re each given a job to do, and we only have to do our job, not someone else’s. We’re each given a territory too. The Lord puts us in position to be His light, His hands and feet in the place where He put us.

I struggled coming back to America after serving overseas. What place was there for me here? It didn’t feel the same as being placed right in the middle of ghetto areas, talking to women in the red light district, sharing a wall with a refugee family living on the other side.

But it was the place where He put me. And He can move us. It seems like He really likes to move His people. If you go through the study I wrote called “Be Ye Separate,” every one of those stories involve someone sent away from their home.

I think it must have to do with how we settle into our ways; we get comfortable. We know what we’re doing and how we do it, so we don’t need to seek Him and acknowledge Him in all our ways.

When He nudges us out of the nest, so to speak, He can get our attention. We needed Him overseas in ways we never had needed Him before. He showed Himself to us in new ways. We got to know our good Father and healer and rescuer and deliverer. It was worth it a million times over.

I understand the hesitation in letting your kids go off to college or move away to pursue a job. I understand the wanting to encourage them to stay home, stay close. But, leaving the nest is maybe the best thing that could happen. It will require relying on God and not on you to feel safe and comfortable.

God has a territory picked out for your children, and for you, for each of us. He’s got a purpose for us in that place. Follow Him there (and let your kids follow Him too) and complete those good works prepared for you.