The Love Seat

I'm sitting in the Munich airport, on a very long lay-over. I'm on a couch that's not too shabby. There's one facing me. And in the last several hours it has been both seat and bed to several people. Now there's two teen aged sisters sitting with their blond haired-blue-eyed parents. The mom is curled up with her head on the dad's lap. Her shoes are off. One sister has her head on the other's shoulder. The dad is listening to his ipod but he's fallen asleep too. They all are breathing the deep breaths of just sitting after hours of rushing. I wonder where they came from? Where they're going?
I'm mesmerized by love these days. The pretty shapes of couples giggling in each other's ears. The sweet shapes of an old man shuffling next to his old wife, each barely holding one another up. And here. This family. This tired family full of stories and purpose and joys and aches that I will never know.

Brava!

My friends from our sister team in central Italy came this weekend. Although I was very intimidated to speak Italian in front of them, the little I did brought great amusement to them. I speak with an "dialect" they tell me - a Northern one! Like a Veronese. Every time I think about it, I'm just tickled. That I belong here. That this is home. That this is my language. I don't even know how to say the word "dialect"... maybe dialecto? Anyway, if I did know how to say it, it would sound like I am from Verona. And that's a really, really good thing.

Winter Solstice

Seasons. Except for my college years, I have never lived where there were dramatic seasons. And in Verona - there are dramatic seasons. I haven't minded the winter like I thought I would - but I am celebrating today. It's the shortest day of the year. I'm so thankful. Not that I really want a short day today - but I do want, and even need - a longer one tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.

I googled "Winter Solstice" today so that I could truly understand it to celebrate it in a real way. Umm... I didn't understand a lick of the Wikipedia article. But that won't stop me from celebrating!

And what a good reminder that I don't have to understand everything about the Lord in order for me to really celebrate Him. I don't understand how He can be omniscient or omnipowerful... or even how He could love me when I'm so full of sin. But I don't have to get the details. I just need to trust that tomorrow there will be more light.

Dirty Stables: God's Prefered Choice

Is your stable clean or dirty?

A friend recently told me how he came across Proverbs 14:4:  'Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest."

We would love to have a showroom home.  Picture-perfect lives.  A "clean stable," if you will.  But the only way to have a clean stable is to get rid of the oxen in our lives.  That is, our lives would be more managable and attractive, perhaps, if:

• I lived and worked in the US, so that we could own a large home, two cars, etc.
• Ann worked outside the home
  
• We sent our kids to public school
• My office wasn't in the middle of our living room
• Ann's workspace didn't double as our dining room table
• We weren't always moving
  
• etc.

As attractive as our stable might be, it would still be a stable and its purpose wouldn't be fulfilled.

So, for that reason, we are so glad we have a dirty stable, full of oxen, so that we can reap a large harvest, because...

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."  -Jesus

Going through Hell

Recently, I was looking through our old newsletters from our time of preparation to go to China.  I had recorded there an account of a little girl who said, "You know, if you dug through the Earth to get to China, you'd have to go through Hell first."  At the time, I really knew what she meant.  Sometimes, it felt like we were "going through Hell" to get to China. 

As any good Christian geophysicist knows, you don't have to go through Hell to get to Italy, but I think we get close sometimes!  But, during this last sprint to arrive in Italy on January 7th, we have certainly felt the presence of the evil one.  We know what to do in those situations, though. 

"Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you."  (James 4:7)

Amen!