The phone beeps. One of the mot­hers in our What­sApp group is sen­ding a mes­sa­ge: "God awa­ke­ned the cons­cien­ce of a boy who had gone ast­ray. He wan­ted to come back to his own pe­op­le. To be­lie­ve his doubts and sins for­gi­ven in Je­sus’ name and blood. "

Soon the phone beeps again. And again and again. The mot­hers in the group shed te­ars of joy be­cau­se of the re­turn of the pro­di­gal son. Emo­ti­o­nal mes­sa­ges.

One day la­ter I get a dif­fe­rent mes­sa­ge. A sad mes­sa­ge. Af­ter a pro­lon­ged il­l­ness, a grand­fat­her has laid down his tra­ve­ling staff. He pas­sed away in­to eter­nal rest du­ring the night. We con­so­le our friend in her grief with mes­sa­ges and gent­le words. What is the most im­por­tant thing? Re­min­ding mes­sa­ges.

A photo mes­sa­ge on the se­cond day of the new ye­ar: a new­ly­wed yo­ung coup­le wal­king down the ais­le. Ex­ci­te­ment, an­ti­ci­pa­ti­on, pu­ri­ty, love. All that in the same pic­tu­re. La­ter in the day a mes­sa­ge from the bride’s mot­her: “I feel ex­haus­ted and all touc­hy.”

I have te­ars in my ey­es. I re­mem­ber well the card we re­cei­ved while still in Fin­land. A wed­ding in­vi­ta­ti­on! How lo­ve­ly! I had to let them know we could not come – we were mo­ving ahe­ad of the ori­gi­nal sche­du­le. The ol­dest child of my dear friend, al­so my per­so­nal friend. May the He­a­ven­ly Fat­her bless yo­ur mar­ri­a­ge, dear yo­ung friends! ”Ho­nor one anot­her abo­ve yo­ur­sel­ves”, I wrote to them. Mes­sa­ges of cong­ra­tu­la­ti­on.

Mes­sa­ges from our child­ren in Fin­land to our fa­mi­ly group. They seem to come clo­ser, though we are thou­sands of mi­les apart. Many pic­tu­res in the mes­sa­ges. And re­qu­ests for pic­tu­res. ”Send me even a pic­tu­re of the lit­t­le ones. I’m lo­ne­so­me for them.”

Hap­py mes­sa­ges: ”I can book the flights now!” Cheer­ful ex­pec­ta­ti­on!

My own mes­sa­ges to a son who sel­dom dis­turbs me with his news.”How is life? Are you still wor­king? Have you had a hair­cut? When will the mi­li­ta­ry ser­vi­ce be­gin?” I of­ten get the same res­pon­se: ”Qui­te oq.” But he is ali­ve. He­alt­hy. Good! Eve­ry­day mes­sa­ges.

The tee­na­ged boy uses his smart phone like an ex­ten­si­on of his hand. Con­tacts with his friends from school and the con­fir­ma­ti­on camp are im­por­tant. The 10-hour time dif­fe­ren­ce is a nui­san­ce. We do not like him to stay up tex­ting most of the night ins­te­ad of slee­ping. Comp­ro­mi­ses. It ma­kes you less lo­ne­so­me when you can dis­cuss with trus­ted friends. Friends­hip mes­sa­ges – being near from so far away.

The two adults in our fa­mi­ly text to check the shop­ping list. To make sure the spou­se is hap­py about a purc­ha­se. To set­t­le di­sag­ree­ments. Caus­tic words or gent­le af­fec­ti­on. ”I still love you.” Love mes­sa­ges. Not al­wa­ys in flo­we­ry lan­gu­a­ge. ”Put the kids to bed!”

Mes­sa­ging has shor­te­ned the dis­tan­ce to Fin­land. Hel­ped us set­t­le in our new home. Gi­ven us strength when we have nee­ded it. Re­min­ded us of be­lie­ving friends ac­ross the oce­an. What we can­not exp­ress in our mes­sa­ges is the new wide open en­vi­ron­ment where we live. We are sur­roun­ded by ma­jes­tic moun­tains shim­me­ring in haze, bre­ath­ta­king­ly be­au­ti­ful.

The smel­ls, the co­lors, the di­ver­si­ty of pe­op­le. The hec­tic traf­fic, the tens of la­nes at high­way in­ter­sec­ti­ons. The new tas­tes, the new cus­toms, the new cli­ma­te. Our mes­sa­ges can­not con­vey the fact that, here too, we hear the fa­mi­li­ar voi­ce of the Good Shep­herd – in Eng­lish. Alt­hough I have not yet been ab­le to un­ders­tand a full ser­mon in the fo­reign lan­gu­a­ge, I have felt hap­py to be at ser­vi­ces. I had to send a small vi­deo clip from the church to my group of friends. Vi­deo mes­sa­ges.

Let us keep in touch! Let us al­so re­mem­ber each ot­her in the most im­por­tant way of mes­sa­ging. In pra­yer.

Sa­ri­an­na Suo­mi­nen

Trans­la­ti­on: S.-L.L.

The blog post was pub­lis­hed in on­li­ne Päi­vä­mies on 20 Jan. 2016.