Hands and house

Hands and house

Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Second Glance...


Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.1:27
1 Corinthians 


Hola!

I am surfacing once again, probably for my benefit more than anyone else...

so much feels like it is bubbling beneath the surface and many times it is when I sit down and write that the Lord and I sift stuff out into a semblance of clarity.

We have been here in Baja for over a month now.

We have traipsed across Baja to visit ranches as fishing villages, stepped onto the Holy Ground of orphanages and seen stories play out like only the Great Storyteller can write them. We have driven through salt flats and date palm oasis'...over roads rough and smooth all the while having our eyes opened and  our hearts changed in so many subtle ways.

We have seen so very much,

and yet we are just babies in beginning to understand.

The thing is, it is so easy to come down here and  to make assumptions.

To look on the surface of things and  compare  it to our own way of life, our own frame of reference.

Honestly, to look and see first poverty and to label it "so sad"....

if I am really honest, that is the easier thing to do.

But as I sit here debating about sharing pictures of things that can easily be labelled, I think I want to write about something else.

Because what is much heavier on my heart is the overwhelming beauty and the incredible honor of what we got to see.

The first glance was "poverty",

the first thought was "what  can I do to help?"

...the second glance was...

contentment,

family,

peace,

beauty.

A friend of ours who has worked extensively in southern Baja has asked people in these remote places, "Would you ever  want to live in America?"

Guess what their answer was?

"No way! We have family, God and just enough of what we need right here."

and that is what we saw.

Yes, sometimes they do not have enough food.

Yes, they often have no electricity, or running water.

Yes, they say they are cold and hungry....

but even more than that,

they have joy.

They care  well for one another,

They have relationships with each other and with God.

On one leg of the trip Parker was hanging his head out the window (soaking it all in)

and Ravenna spoke up.

She said, "Mama, I know that some people in Baja may be poor but I think they are lucky. In America we dig everything up and build things. In Baja they get to enjoy the beauty just as God created it."

Wow.

How much of our world, our lives and our hearts to we dig up while running after the next  'big' thing? I reflect on my life back home and from here, much of it can look like striving after wind.

So my first response was to think, "what can I do to help?"

But now....

we are asking God to search our hearts to be more like those that we have met on this trip.

Doug and I have talked at length each time we come down here (this is our 6th year) about how we live with our hearts in two places.

In the past we have talked about wanting to live in Hood River with our life affected by what we have seen in Baja.

I meant by that was sacrificing so that I could give more to the needs down here....and yes, there are real needs.

Now, I would say the same thing but the meaning would be very different.

How can we live in Hood River in a way that begins to in some way embrace the beauty and simplicity, the depth of relationship and  awareness of God that is slowly beginning to seep into the cracks of our souls?


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