Today

It's nearing the midpoint of March; it seems the anticipation of spring, the joy of new life budding. As the days pale and lighten, my shadow stretches beyond to touch a hope and a rush of things to come. A new season in on the horizon. I am excited-, nervous, caught in the moments between living and thinking ahead of the future nostalgia I will feel when I am gone. This present joy threatens to surrender to tomorrow's memory. Cold water, come rush over me! Snap me out of this frost so I can reclaim these Todays. Tomorrow's sunrise is nothing to today's dusk. For I can see this in front of my hand. It is altogether lovely.

Take a picture in my mind. For in two weeks I will be returning to the North Island to keep fighting this good fight for Jesus before heading back again to the Western Hemisphere. I pray that my path will bring me back here soon-- back to this beautiful country that has captivated me. I want to savour every day. I want to remember everything now.

I know I will miss the people, my friends. The deep waters of people I've gotten to know in the last few months. The stoic Scottish who are very slow to warm up to you, but when they do you know you've got a lifelong friend. The abundance of mature spirit-filled believers in the dotted towns around me. I will miss my little tiny room on the bottom of the globe. I will miss my good friend with whom I invested time and love and prayers and laughs.

I know God has all my days in His hands; I trust Him and I look forward to unwrapping new gifts. But for now all I want, surpassing dreams and promises for days to come, is simply the Now and Here. The snapshot in my memory. 

This season has been unexpectedly rich, for my heart has been instructed beyond my imaginings. I have been refined through God's fire and the enemy's trial. I have drawn under the protective wings of our loving God while the enemy bared his teeth and told me to leave. I pressed in to God and fought, prayed, fasted, and was very alone in the wilderness. But God never left my side, praise His Holy Name! My new friends have rallied around me, prayed and cried with me, shared our deepest hearts, and worshipped our God together. I have learned how to be a sister. And I have savoured having a wonderful brother I can trust and love. I've nurtured my young heart with the help of numerous playgrounds in surrounding towns, swinging wildly and laughing with glee. It's been great to have a friend to join in this fun! Seems a little less crazy that way...

This season has been rich, full, overflowing, in a land that is verdant with majesty and a people who are filled with stories to share and cuppas to drink.

I pray that you savour your Todays as meaningful memories. For someday your Today will be your last; the day when the grey curtain is unveiled. Make the most of this present moment!

"See to it, brothers, that none of you has an unbelieving, sinful heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in the Messiah if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at the beginning. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Hebrews 3:12-14

Please pray for me, that I may be restored to you soon, and that I will live honorably in every way. And, as it is written in Hebrews 13:20, "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in me and in you that which is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."