perspective

We just got back from a quick trip out of the country. The visa that we have right now- our permission from this government to live here- requires us to leave the country every 90 days. Just when we want to be instantly accessible to talk with or hear from our precious family, we had to be on the road. We took a 2.5 hour flight, a bus ride to the border, waited through a too many lines, filled out too many forms, and finally made it to Hong Kong. We ate lunch (3 pm) and turned back to plow through both borders again. We stayed in that city for the night and made it home smoothly yesterday evening.

Flying back home, I reflected on how grateful (and honestly, astonished!) I was for how well our kids did on the whole journey yesterday. It was a tiring day. And to look at it, I'm sure it made no sense whatsoever to our kids. They didn't see why on earth we would have to wait through so many lines or just keep walking, wandering, and walking like we did.

But they did it. And I really want to bless them for it! What precious children's trust to simply go where we told them to go.....

It wasn't without motivation though. Having no prize at the finish line would never have worked for our kids (for our big two, that is. For John, he's just sweetly along for the ride.) From the start of arranging this "visa run," Matt knew we needed to stay at a hotel with a swimming pool. He found the cheapest hotel online that had a swimming pool and booked it. The kids knew what was coming.

And it was worth it to them (and, as a result, well worth it to us too.)

Grief would be unbearable- really not worth recovering from- if it weren't for the prize at the end of our finish line. Jesus endured the cross "for the joy set before him." (Hebrews 12:2) We should follow his example and do as we've been commanded to: look up, look ahead... (Colossians 3:2)

Peter addresses his first letter to "elect exiles." We live here, but as exiles who belong to (are chosen for) another place. We are "looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:10)

Peter also tells those "elect exiles" to "live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear." Not as strangers who might be dropped off the back of the wagon. Not as strangers who are cared little for. But strangers here, who have been bought with an immeasurable price.

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish and without defect." (1 Peter 1:18)

Since God has already given the most lavish gift in the universe in order to rescue us- he crushed his own Son- He will not leave us abandoned now. "Shall I fear, or could the Head, rise and leave it's members dead?" (Luise Henriette of Brandenburg) No. Never.

In his book Heaven, Randy Alcorn describes Florence Chadwick (p. xx), who set out to swim from Catalina Island to the shore of California in 1952. She'd already been the first woman to swim the English Channel, surely she could conquer this task too. She covered almost the entire distance, but after 15 hours of swimming, she gave up. She was less than half a mile away. At a news conference the next day she said, "All I could see was the fog... I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it."

We are praying now for you, Grether, faith to know that past this fog is the shore- where Jesus is, with Maelee. You may not see it now, but it is there. We are praying for you to see it in time, and to have hope and courage to swim on. The Spirit of God dwells in you, and you surrounded by a crowd of heavenly and earthly witnesses to support you and love you for when you are ready to go forward (and that will NOT mean forgetting) from here.