Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Dear God,

I crawled onto the airplane, exhausted from two weeks at home with grandchildren.  Oh, we had a magnificent time together but oh, creating The Pines campground complete with tents, hammock, fire pit, camp chairs, table and chairs, etc, planning and orchestrating eleven days of activities, washing 25 loads of laundry including all my sleeping bags, every blanket I own because it rained and I had to make a sleeping quarter in my bedroom carrying extra mattresses and pillows so we could all sleep in the same room, cooking foil dinners and other meals, and tearing everything down before returning home, I just wanted to get in my airplane seat and close my eyes.  But it didn't happen that way.  You had a better idea.

I sat down next to a stranger who asked if I was flying home.  When I replied, that began a conversation that ended at the baggage claim with a hug, exchanged email addresses and phone numbers and a promise to get together.  This woman from Maine had grown up in Indiana not far from me.  She was best friends with one of my best friend's sister from high school.  She was married in a church I attended for a while.  She had stayed with my best friend in Florida.  She taught school in the same township where I pastored.  All that was intriguing but no more so than the talk about faith.

The woman wonders about faith.  She and a group of women get together to seek faith, each of them having a child with a profound faith, one a Jew, another a Mormon, another an evangelical, and more.  They wonder what they are missing.  They read religious books trying to figure out what you are all about.  She wondered about me. 

Faith brings people together.  Faith teaches us to ask questions, to seek our own answers and relationship with you.  Faith stirs inside us bringing inspiration, hope, knowledge, insight, and wisdom.  Faith warms us, stretching us to share your warmth with others.  Faith invites us to dig deeper, to explore the depths, and to discover sacred gems always present.  Faith takes us on a journey, an adventure, always leading us to you.

Loving God,
thank you
for Marty,
her desire
to know you,
and faith
that awakens us
to you.
Thank you
for chance encounters
that lead us
to renewal.
Thank you
for allowing us
to rise higher
in the skies
and touching eternity.

Love always, Andrea