home or nest?

One Sunday evening last month, when my husband and I returned home from a weekend trip, we found grass and debris on our front porch, right on the welcome mat.  Strange, we thought, because the pet sitter had been there a few hours before to look in on our cats.  By the end of the next day, it was clear what was going on:  two robins were building a nest in a corner of the transom window above our front door.  It’s a great, if a bit precarious, location, protected from rain and wind but perched in a pretty narrow space.  And every time someone goes in or out the front door, the robins go on high alert to guard their nest, and the human offender, whether resident, visitor, or delivery person, is forced into a hasty retreat.

When I was a very young child, I believed that birds lived in their nests all the time.  For this misperception I blame at least one childhood song, story, or poem that spoke of birds returning to their nests at day’s end.  To me, a bird’s nest was its home.  But as I grew up and learned more about birds, I found that a nest is really a nursery, a birthing room.  Some birds, such as eagles, return to their nests year after year to bring the next generation into the world; others construct a new nest each year late in the winter or early in the spring.

Compared to many of my friends in Iowa, my family has relocated a lot.  Whenever we move into a new house, I resist the urge to make it my own because, so far, I haven’t lived anywhere that I would consider my permanent home.  Every house is just a way station for us.  My husband dreams of retiring back in the southeast, and maybe that will happen.  But for the past nine years, we have felt at home in Iowa.  My daughter teases me a little bit about not getting the pictures onto the walls or painting any of the rooms (except hers) to get rid of the standard Realtor Off-White, but my thoughts are always on resale.  The kitchen will need to be redone, and the walls will all have to be neutralized anyway, so why put a lot of time and money into the décor when it’s all temporary?  Our houses have been more like nests for us, places that have sheltered us while we’ve lived and worked and raised our daughter.  Then we’ve moved on.

Environmentalists like to say, “Tread softly on the earth.”  We shouldn’t be bad tenants, marking up the walls, damaging the appliances, and destroying the furniture.  We should be good caretakers of the planet, not abusers.  As followers of Jesus, we might modify that saying to “Live lightly in the world.”  By that I mean that we should remember that the world is more like a nest for us than a home.  Scripture tells us that although we live IN the world, we should not be OF the world.  This is not our final destination, so we should not get too attached to worldly things.  We can think of the world as our nursery, a place for us to be born and grow and practice living by the example of Jesus.  We can build relationships and love others, show kindness and compassion, and share what we have with other people.  Then, one day, we will fly away from this nest to our real home with Jesus, where we can live out everything we’ve learned.

There’s a lot of talk in the Christian world about legacy.  How should we live our lives?  What will we leave behind?  How do we want to be remembered?  While I agree that we should be thinking about what we do that will outlive us, I’m not sure I agree with the whole legacy thing.  My purpose on earth is to reflect the glory of God, not to try to bring glory to myself.  Should I even be thinking about whether anything I do will keep the memory of me alive?  We frequently don’t know the impact our words and actions have on other people, especially long term.  If we focus too much on how the things we do will build up our legacy, maybe then we focus too little on whether those things glorify God.  If we give up the idea of how, or even whether, the world will remember us and instead consider how God thinks of us, maybe living a life that reflects God’s glory can become simpler.  Liberating, even.  There’s no projecting into the future, only loving and serving in the present.  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”  (Jeremiah 29:10-12).

We are promised a future.  But we live only in the present.  It’s not impossible to make a name for ourselves while serving God, but it’s got to be difficult to keep an eye on both goals.  Which is our priority?  I want to start living a life that honors God, even if I am forgotten by this world once I’m gone.  What about you?  Consider whether it is more important when you leave this earth that an eloquent obituary touts your accomplishments or that God smiles at you and says, “Nicely done.  Welcome home.”

what world do you live in?

After last week and all the awful/frightening/tragic news and then the drama of the closing days, I find myself wishing I was in another world.  In fact, I wish I could see the New Heaven and Earth descending from a cloud, as scripture tells us it will.  I am more than ready for Christ to come and get us out of this mess.

So much pain.  So much “past” that will forever hang like a dark cloud over every day of the “future.”  How do I recover?  I am old…relatively speaking…compared to those who have little children who just now saw evil on the TV.

They were not here for the horrible 9/11 attacks and the days that followed.  They may have heard about the ongoing wars, but the terror of the days and weeks that followed September 2001 is not in their frame of reference.  Some of you younger parents may not remember it all that well, either…it was almost 12 years ago.  You may remember where you were when you heard the news, but your busy teen lives probably were wound up in fun activities, sports and school homecomings.

New York City, Photo source: DOD, public domain

But I’m sure you know that our world was changed that day.

And after Boston, it has been changed once more.  No longer complacent, believing that all is good.  Because it’s not.

Days like April 15, 2013 give us a reality check.  Not just because of the evil that comes out of its dark pit and strikes in daylight.  Reality checks bounce off everything around us.  Seeing our kids, friends and family still walking and talking, our house still in one piece, our city streets open and free.

As awful as it all has been, we still live in a First World Country, with First World problems.  We are blessed.

What if every day we had to forage the streets for food for our children?  What if we had to worry they would be sold into sex slavery?  What if missiles rained daily onto our city?  What if suicide bombers were normal events of each day?  What if there were no antibiotics readily available, or clean water?  What if you and your family had to sleep in the dirt or mud?  What if there was no electricity, how would you cook?  What if….?

That’s the life of the Third World. Every. Single. Day.

What world do you live in?

We are blessed, blessed and blessed again.  Remember to thank God for each and every blessing.  Hug your kids. Count your blessings. There are trials, there are troubles, Jesus said that “in this world, you will have trouble,” but he also told us to take heart because He has overcome this world.

We are not “of” this world, although we are “in” it.  Thank God and Praise Him that He, through Jesus Christ, has given us a New World!!

by Cindy Best

writing as a way of life

Think of your favorite book as a child.  Was it a fairytale?  A book of poems?  Maybe a Disney book.

I remember reading a big book with lots of stories…including The Little Red Hen, that classic about selfishness.  Actually, it was probably first read to me, because by the time I could read myself, it had well-worn pages.

One of my very favorite “Little Golden Books” was Disney’s Cinderella.  In fact, I still have that book.  A classic fairytale if there ever was one.  My favorite characters were the mice!!  When that story was put on the movie screen, I loved how the mice were voiced and the way they moved and scurried.  What imagination the illustrators had.

My reading in those early years consisted of the usual: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Lady & the Tramp, Bambi, Dumbo.  Disney all the way, I guess!

What do you remember most about the books you read, or the ones read to you?  Was it the heroes, the adventure, the mystery, the moral?  I loved it all, I think.  It wasn’t until I was introduced to Nancy Drew that I focused in on mystery books, or adventure.  But I’m wondering what sparked your interest?  Can you recall?

Think of the hundreds of thousands of books that have been published through the centuries.  How can they all be so different?  How can they capture our attention and sometimes our hearts?

When you study creative writing, you learn there are basically only so many plots.  That is why sometimes when you are watching a movie, or reading a book, you realize you’ve been down this road before and maybe it’s a tired re-working of an old idea.  What makes a great book is how an author takes a concept that’s as old as time (good guy vs. bad guy/evil) and makes it all “new.”

Whether it’s cowboys and outlaws, knights and dragons, space ships and invaders, the elements of a story are the same.  There is a main character with a goal, a reason why they need that goal (that’s motivation), and a person(s) who wants to keep them from their goal (that’s conflict).  The conflict is what drives the story forward and keeps you interested.  Conflict doesn’t mean fighting, it’s just something that is a stumbling block to the well laid plans of the main character.

Cinderella is the quintessential romance.  A young woman, who sees herself as mistreated, seeks a better life and finds it with the handsome prince and lives happily ever after.  You can put that story line into any number of books, movies and videos.  Her goal is to work for herself; her motivation is to get away from her mistreatment; the conflict comes from the Evil Step-Sisters and Step-Mother.  And the drama comes when the clock is running out and strikes midnight.  Gasp!  What will happen next?  Will she survive?  Will she overcome the odds?  How will it happen?

We are all writing our own life’s story, aren’t we?

I hope we look at what our goal is, our motivation for reaching it and what conflicts may come as stumbling blocks along our way.  There will be drama, no doubt.  There may be sadness, and maybe despair.  But we have the end of our book already written.  We overcome.  We survive.  We win.

Remember your story is fluid.  And God holds the eraser.  Never think you cannot have a good ending.  It is guaranteed.

by Cindy Best

priceless

Have you ever owned anything you really couldn’t afford?  Maybe you’ve bought a fixer-upper house (or any house) and found that no matter how much time and money you pour into it, there’s always something else to fix or replace.  Or maybe you’ve bought a classic car, intending to restore it to its former glory, and everything you do just leads to something else that needs to be done.  We invest so much into maintaining and improving our investments, sometimes we wonder if they are worth what they cost.

Perhaps you’ve received a gift you couldn’t afford.  Has a well-meaning friend or relative given your child a puppy or kitten, thinking only about how much the child would enjoy the pet and not about how much time and money you will have to spend feeding and caring for it?  Or maybe someone has given you an expensive family heirloom, and over the years you have had to move it, find a place for it, dust it, insure it.  Sometimes a gift can be a burden.

When we consider the gift of salvation that God has offered us, we surely experience joy and gratitude.  This is truly a gift that we cannot afford; yet, it is a gift that we must accept if we are to embrace life and overcome death.  God’s grace is freely given:  it cannot be earned or bought and, just as importantly, it cannot be returned or lost.  It is the gift we celebrate at Christmas by giving presents to one another.  It is the babe in the manger, the offerings of the magi, the miracle of God becoming human and living among us.  It is the wonder of a young girl who gave her own life, her plans and her future, to God to use as He pleased.  How many of us would make such a sacrifice?

If you have children, you have probably heard them say, “I wish it could be Christmas every day!”  Indeed, we are urged to keep Christmas in our hearts all year.  Doing so might make us happier, more generous, more loving people.  But as followers of Jesus, isn’t it even more important to keep Easter ever in our hearts?  The love of God demonstrated by the incarnate Word is a complex love.  It is generous, kind, compassionate, and joyful.  It is also sacrificial, demanding, and loaded with expectation.  It is the warmth of a stable full of animals making quiet sounds over a newborn baby dozing in the protective arms of his mother.  It is the agony and solitude of the cross and the bitter chill of a tomb.  It is the impossible truth of a risen Lord.

What does it mean to keep Easter all year long?  To me, Resurrection Sunday is like New Year’s Day.  It is a new beginning for everyone who has accepted this incredible gift of salvation.  It is a day of ecstatic joy preceded by three days of darkness, mourning, and despair.  We would do well not to forget those days of hopelessness because they remind us of the despair Jesus felt on the cross as first his friends and then his Father turned away from him.  Christmas is God’s perfect love poured out on creation; Easter is God’s pure love tempered by sacrifice.  It is love that through the tormenting fire of ridicule, abandonment, cowardice, selfishness, abuse, jealousy, hatred, and murder became . . . grace.

How can we respond to such a gift?  Saying “thank you” is a start, but it’s not enough.  Unless our hearts are changed by this extravagant grace, God’s love is wasted on us.  When we are tempted to be proud of our new status in Christ, we might remember that he, not we, paid the price for it.  When we are provoked to righteous indignation, we might consider the many accounts in scripture of his dealings with provokers and respond the way he did, with quiet confidence.  When we are angry, we might remember how an act of sacrificial love was what it took to satisfy the wrath of God, and we might offer love instead of a clever word or hurtful retort.  When we see those in need, we can reach out beyond our own small circles and offer help.  When we don’t know what else to do, we can love.  And if love costs us something, we can be grateful for the opportunity to make the sacrifice.  It is so little compared to what we have been given.

We must keep Easter in our hearts always, lest we forget that the babe in the manger was also the lamb on the altar.

spring to life!

Spring may finally be here!  I am soooo ready for flowers to peek through the ground and leaves to unfurl on the trees.  Ready for consistent sunshine and fluffy clouds to float across the sky.  And ready for the swing on my deck.

Goodness sakes it’s been a l-o-n-g winter!

Easter Sunday always makes me ready for down-and-out spring weather.  What about you?  What signifies “Spring” in your mind?  A yard full of Robins, or the first Crocus or Daffodils?  Green grass finally making a stand amongst the mud-covered lawns of the neighborhood?

Yesterday, I drove past a huge pile of snow that had been plowed off a big parking lot into one of those mountains.  It was disgusting.  A huge pile of “snirt” as we Northerners are known to call it.  That snow was so filthy and black, I swear it could’ve been left over from last year.  I hate the look of that stuff.  Maybe because it reminds me we haven’t yet turned the full corner toward truly warmer weather.

I had to remind myself we have rejoiced on Easter, however, so that means Spring is truly here.  At last.  What a joy to know all things are about to transform into new life on our side of the Equator.  Sometimes I forget that as we are entering warmth and beauty, another part of our globe is going dormant and growing chilly.  I studied all that in my Geography class in school, but the Interwebz has helped me reclaim that knowledge, because I have friends in Australia who post pictures and talk about the graying skies and cool temps now.  Isn’t our world fascinating?

The significance of new life on our planet should not be lost to the Christian mind.  We should grab onto it, rejoice in it and grasp the awesome message God planted when He created all things for us to enjoy.  We get to enjoy God on earth before we get to Heaven.  Awesome!

And Colossians 3:3 tells us all about it: “Your old self has died; and your new life is kept with Christ in God.”

Wow!

So it doesn’t matter if I’m a big pile of snirt, does it?  That’s my old self–the before-I-met-Christ self.  I am KEPT with CHRIST in GOD!  Who can take that away?  No one.  Christ is the one Who first died and now lives forever…the only man to please God perfectly.  And He keeps me with Him in God.  No one can snatch me from His grasp.

Spring is new life and it comes year after year.  Nothing can stop it because God planned it that way.

Your new life in Heaven is coming.  Nothing can stop it.  Because God planned it that way.

Thank you, Jesus!

by Cindy Best

curiosity can be good

Do you have a cat, or cats?  Maybe you’ve at least heard the saying, ‘curiosity killed the cat’?

If you’re a mom, you know that cats and crawling kids and toddlers have a lot in common.  Curiosity Rules!

Now days you buy little plastic plugs to put into electric wall sockets, and put cords out of reach to eliminate electrical shocks.  And push handles on pots and pans toward the back of the stove to protect little ones from pulling boiling water or hot grease onto them.  Wall-mounted big-screen TVs are safer than having a child try to crawl up the entertainment center and pull the television onto themselves.

There are all sorts of things that make innocent and unschooled little ones curious.  It takes a watchful eye, some planning and the right “stuff” to keep cats and children safe from themselves!

I got to thinking, though, that curiosity is what drives us onto the next step in our lives and our development.  Isn’t it the baby’s desire to get to something faster that creates the need to crawl?  And then seeing things at a higher view drives their desire to stand and walk.  Pulling themselves up and teetering on weak legs, it takes a while to get balance and coordination of muscles and strength to accomplish what they want.

But it’s their innate desire to quench their curiosity that propels them to the next thing, and the next.

All of life, in my opinion, then becomes a chance to explore what is unknown–driven by our personal curiosity.  Individuals differ, of course, on what piques their curiosity.  Education provides opportunities to see what’s “out there” that we may know nothing personally about.  For instance, how does a farm raised child learn to be interested in chemistry or art?  It has to be through exposure to something that sparks that “light” in their brain…an unquenchable thirst for knowledge of something they are not normally around.

But what, specifically, does it?

Maybe a book that is read to them talks about the melting of metals and the forming of jewelry.  Maybe they have a relative or friend who has a Junior Chemistry set, or a little bunsen burner.  Remember when we heated the end of a piece of glass tubing and blew into it?

Or maybe a friend has a telescope, or a trip to a university’s large telescope brings an interest in astronomy or space flight.

Curiosity isn’t only important for intellectual growth.  It is vital to spiritual growth, too!  What will drive your children and friends and family to seek an understanding of God’s love?  Of God’s infinite grace?  Of God’s willingness to love us ‘IN SPITE’ of our shortcomings?

Why isn’t everyone curious about the cross?  Or at least curious about why we go to a building on Sunday?

Could it be that we have not provided a “spark of interest?”  Our lives are wrapped up tightly within us and no one sees a reason to wonder about God?

We know that electrical outlets are dangerous, and so we protect our children from what we know will cause harm…even death.

Is there a way you can share the danger of not knowing Jesus Christ with your friends and family?  A way that piques their curiosity as to how you are getting through life?

Surely, you have just as many trials as they do.  Job insecurity.  Illness.  Aging parents or sick children.  Money woes enough to fill a book.  College costs.  Buying a safe car.  Fixing up a home that needs immediate repair?

How do you cope?  Is there something you can share that will help someone else’s curiosity seek the Savior?

Think about it.

by Cindy Best

time for everything

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (New International Version)

the bleach in the blood

Once I was visiting another church and the pastor used an illustration of how easy it is for sin to color our whole lives for the worse.  It was very dramatic.

He had a glass of water on the podium and also a glass he’d filled with garden dirt.  He took a tablespoon and filled it with the dirt that fit in it and then dumped it into the large glass of water.  You saw how the black soil sunk to the bottom of the glass and then slowly it began to dissolve and filter into the entire glass until all the water was a murky gray.

Obviously, the dirt was sin and the water signified the life of a person and how just a bit of sin could spread through the entire life.  His dramatization made me think of an anecdote I’d heard Charles Swindoll use many years ago.  Swindoll talked about how our actions rub off on another and vice versa…in other words, birds of a feather tend to flock together and we should be careful of the company we keep.  He ended his illustration by saying you can be wearing white gloves and go into the garden and pick up dirt, but the gloves will always get dirty while the dirt will never get “glovey.”

We can have the best of intentions, but when faced with the evil of sin, the dark coloring will scar our souls.

The pastor’s graphic display with the water and dirt sent a quietness over the congregation that was quite noticeable.  And as people filed out, their quietness was depressing.

I wanted to shout and say, “But look what one teaspoon of bleach can do to this muddy glass of water!”   I wanted to grab an eye dropper and fill it with good old ordinary bleach and show how the blackness disappeared and the water became clear again!

THAT is the victory which comes from Christ’s unselfish death on the cross.  His blood is the bleach that cleanses our blackened souls from all the filth of sin–no matter what kind of sin it is.

His blood is greater than ALL our sin.

That is the victorious message of the Cross of Christ.  The plan God conceived before we were born and carried out through His Son Jesus.

A “legalist” might think that we keep adding teaspoons of dirt daily to that glass of water and that we somehow have to figure a way to keep that water clean on our own.  But the joy of God’s plan, God’s calling to His grace, is that when Jesus said, “It is finished” while He hung on the cross, he meant he’d thrown His blood (the cleansing flood) into that glass of our sin, and He did it once for all.  Forever.  It. Is. Finished.

Praise His Name and rejoice in His resurrection.  His triumph over sin and death. For while He was on the cross, YOU were on His mind.

by Cindy Best

a day of rest

I imagine many of you have had weeks when you’ve experienced what I have this week…brain overload!!  Or feeling “brain dead” where I cannot think of one more thing.  Or one particular thing.

But at night my brain seems to go crazy with ideas.

I think I need Spring Break!

Which leads me to wonder what you do to “fill your well” with energy, creativity, peace, patience or whatever it is you need the most.

As women, we push ourselves to be all things to all people.  And that is something we do at home, at work, at church and at other gatherings we might be involved with.  I think we are mostly running on “fumes” a lot of the time.  And we do need to step back and have a break.  A lot more often than we’d imagine.

The “Day of Rest” that God instituted was meant for that physical and mental break, but we’ve turned it into one more day to cram activities into.  They may be good activities for either our spouse or our children, but somehow the hours get away from us, and we find Monday racing toward us with the next schedule of events blocked out on our calendars.

I don’t have an answer to this predicament, but I do know that we need to find out where our personal “gas tank” is.  Is it in reading, going to a park and enjoying nature, visiting a museum or art center, creating something through crafts or painting/drawing?  Or do you draw inner strength and fire from fellowship with friends of like mind?

Whatever it is that feeds your soul, you need to make a plan.  Sometimes it seems hopeless, but believe me, if you don’t “try” to plan, I know it will never happen.  So, better to try.  Right?

Now, talk amongst yourselves.

At least talk with those important to you, who will benefit from your mental health!  Be creative, but do take time.  Even if it’s only going to a coffee shop for tea and scones!  It’s important!

by Cindy Best

learning to see

Ever since I was a little girl, I have worn glasses or contact lenses.  My nearsightedness was diagnosed when I started school, as is the case for many children.  Back then, very few kids wore glasses, so the ones who did were often ridiculed.  “Four-eyes” was a common nickname, though this never made sense to me.  Who even came up with that?  I remember that my teacher, probably trying to make me feel more normal, wrote on my report card that she liked my “pretty blue glasses.”  You would have to ask my parents if I resisted having to wear glasses because I don’t recall.  What I do remember is feeling different.  Nowadays I don’t think kids feel that way about glasses.  It seems that more children today are myopic, so glasses are very common.  In fact, glasses have become so stylish that some people who don’t even need them for vision correction wear them as a fashion accessory.

It’s not my imagination that there are more myopic children now than there were when I was a child.  A recent study published in Science News magazine* states that myopia has increased worldwide, primarily in urban areas, with nearly a third of adults in the US now nearsighted.  The statistics are even more stunning in Asia, where in Shanghai 95% of college students are myopic.  How can this be?  Visual acuity is a combination of the physical structure of the eye, signals from the eye to the brain, and exposure to the eye of various stimuli, basically learning.  The study finds a connection between physical eye development and the amount of time a child spends outdoors (after a certain age, the connection seems to disappear).  Scientists don’t know exactly how being outdoors affects eyesight:  possible factors are regular exposure to sunlight, which is 30 to 130 times stronger than indoor lighting; vitamin D (from sunlight); physical activity (although indoor sports don’t offer the same benefits to the eye); different stimuli in the peripheral field; and a broader field of vision.  When we live our lives primarily at arms’ length, our eyes don’t have a chance to relax.  Workers who spend eight hours or more per day on the computer or doing close work are encouraged to look into the distance at regular intervals to avoid eye strain.  You’ve probably experienced this when you’ve been on the computer too long or gotten involved in a really good book, and you’ve forgotten to look up.  Once you do, things at a distance might be blurry for a moment.

When I read the study, I thought about how our spiritual eyesight can become myopic, too.  When our focus is on ourselves, our loved ones, and our local church and community and we forget to look up and around, the more distant world can grow blurry.  The longer we live in the space within arms’ reach, the more difficult it becomes to notice the needs of the greater world.  Maybe we stop paying attention to international news because we are so frustrated or even disgusted with the local and national news, and we don’t even want to know what’s going on outside our circle of influence.  Feeling helpless is not comfortable and can even be painful.  What can I do about the various crises in Africa, India, the Middle East?  Why should I care?  Isn’t there enough for me to deal with in my own hometown?

Jesus lived all his earthly life in a very small geographical area, but his message was for the entire world.  He taught that we are to feed the hungry, minister to the poor and imprisoned, heal the sick, and share the good news of salvation wherever we go.  So it isn’t wrong of us to do good in our own geographical area.  But although we live in a community, that community is part of a larger world, and we know that everything is connected in ways that we might not be able to see.  God, though, as the author of this great Story of life, knows how all the plot lines and conflicts fit together, from the smallest personal problem to the greatest global catastrophe.  And because the whole world is important to God, shouldn’t it matter to us?  Even if we have little power and influence on people and places far away, don’t we need to be mindful of them?

Last week my husband and I said farewell to our college student daughter as she departed Iowa for a semester in China.  Nothing broadens your perspective more than sending your offspring to the other side of the world (except maybe going there yourself).  She has traveled some over the past few years and enjoys it very much, developing quite the sense of adventure.  As we gave her a hug and then watched her go up the escalator to the airport security checkpoint, I thought about how much larger and smaller her world is becoming, larger because she is traveling to far-flung places and smaller because she has learned that people, despite differences in culture, language, and geography, are pretty much the same wherever you go.  We are all characters both in our own stories and in God’s grand Story, the Story that He long ago completed even as we continue to compose our own life’s work.  The Story about God and His pure, persistent, boundless, incomprehensible love for the whole world.

When I say my prayers, I pray for my daughter, for her safety and health and for a great experience.  I also pray for the people that she will meet, those who will offer her friendship or inconvenience or downright trouble.  Until she went to China, I prayed for people there only in times of tragedy, when the media graphically displayed their suffering.  Now I envision professors and shopkeepers, bus drivers and factory workers, going about their normal days, and I pray for them.  I pray that God will place people in my daughter’s path who will help her, not harm her, and who will show her that He is very busy in their homeland.  I pray that He will shine through her, making her a beacon of His love and light in a country that, despite the growth of the Christian church under persecution, is still very much in spiritual darkness.

And most of all, I pray that He will give me eyes to see clearly what He sees when He looks over the whole of this beautiful broken world:  the full height and depth and breadth of His love poured out on all of His children, wherever they might live or roam.

*http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/347738/description/Urban_Eyes