Letter to Lydia

Dear Lydia,

It was our pleasant surprise to meet you today. You see, our group wasn't supposed to be here. It had been storming and snowing yesterday, quite unexpectedly, and our flight plans had been cancelled. Being born and raised in Bolivia, I'm sure you're used to the weather. But, the skies cleared to the most dazzling blue you've ever seen, so through the air we soared. Well, all except for one of us - she had to stay behind because she became too sick to fly. But, you see, that's why you are along for the ride. We saved that seat just for you!

Oh Lydia, isn't the view from up here incredible?!  Have you ever seen a cloud so puffy or a rainbow so brilliant?  Have you ever seen the forest from above and giggled over how much it looks like broccoli?  Have you ever cruised at an altitude this high and pretended to race the seagulls as they shared the sky with you?  Have your ears ever been plugged as you take off from an airstrip carved out of the jungle and felt them pop as you touch down at a real airport?  Oh, Lydia, there's so much you have to discover!  There's so much we want to tell and show and reveal to you!  But, this is your first time away from home.  So, we will try to contain our excitment for you.

 

I'll bet you're a little scared to be apart from your family.  I saw the look in your mom's eyes as she waited while you boarded the plane.  Her tears matched yours.  You look just like your mom - beautiful and strong.  I'll bet, if we could talk to her, she would tell us stories of the ways you make people smile and laugh and feel good about themselves.  You seem like that kind of girl. 

  

I'll bet the friends you play with on the playground are going to miss you, too. Did you tell them how long you would be in the city? I'll bet they're excited for you! The doctors in the children's hospital are going to be very kind, Lydia. They love to help kids like you feel better. And you know what? I'll bet this next month is going to go by really fast and, before you know it, you'll be back to playing and learning how to write and draw and read and do math. Oh Lydia, you are such a smart little girl.

But, Lydia, I hope there's one thing you know - above all other things.  I hope you know how much you are loved.  I'm not just talking about us - though, in the short time we've known you, we have grown to love you very much.  No, the love I'm talking about is from God.  You see, He's the one who made it snow the day before our arrival.  He's the one who made an empty seat just for you.  He's the one that taught the pilots how to fly.  He's the one who will heal your illness.  He's the one who will sustain you and carry you through life.  We won't be here when you return, sweet Lydia.  But, our God will.  He will always be with you.  He promised.  And, if there's one thing I know, it's that God ALWAYS keeps His promises.  Always.  There are no surprises when it comes to that.

Lydia, you are loved.

Been Doin' Some Thinkin'

When I was a senior in college, I started a tradition of choosing a "word of the year."  It actually started out as something rather simple and a bit silly.  I remember the first word I ever chose was "Joy" - because I woke up super grumpy one day and just knew things needed to be different.  Over the course of the year, I looked for it in everything and expected that the Lord would reveal it in the most unexpected places.  As always, he did not disappoint.  That was the year I won "Most Improved Morning Person" on my floor - an honor to say the least, not because of what it said about me but for what it said about the God who refines me.  That was also the year I met a person who would change my life forever, but not in the way I ever expected, and in a way that would cause me to drastically redefine what "joy" really means.  7 years later, the word still surprises me.

Wait.

Hope.

Fearless.

Just a sliver of the past 7 years.  And then there's 2011...

Dream.  I can't escape it.  My heart longs to be released into the freedom of wondering.  But, not just a stream-of-consciousness-thinking and pondering of "what's next?" - it's the kind of dreaming that you do right before your eyes close at night and when they open again to face a new day with endless opportunity.  It's the kind of dreaming that pushes me outside myself and forces me to lean hard against lines I create.  It's the kind of dreaming that reveals how little I know of my God and all that He is capable of doing - and, though I may catch a glimpse, the greatness of His knowledge will always escape me.  It's the kind of dreaming that allows me to try (and fail) and try again.  It's the kind of dreaming that restores beauty where there was once a heap of ashes.  It's the tiny blade of grass poking through a sea of concrete - reminding us that life can exist everywhere.

So, in 2011, I make no resolutions.  How many of those really pan out anyway?  No, I will just simply dream.  I will take chances - isn't there always a little bit of risk involved when you dream?  And, I will share what I discover here, through pictures.  I don't promise to post every day - dreaming doesn't always involve losing sense of reality.  And I don't promise that the pictures I post will be the best and greatest things you've ever seen.  But, they will all tell a story.  And, when I look back in the end, my hope is that I will see how the Lord revealed His beautiful mystery in this life through the power of a simple dream.