So for Christmas this year my family decided to go on a cruise. Why? Well, last Christmas wasn’t so great for us. My grandfather(Pops) died a few days after Christmas. I guess my family just wanted to do something different, and different it was. We took my grandmother(Nanny) along with us, but the thing is, she really needed someone to go with her so that we could do things like get off the ship and explore and she would not be left alone. So we got my great uncle’s wife’s sister to go, Martha. Now Martha was sweet and all but my gosh! Some people talk because they truly have interesting things to say, and others talk simply because no one has ever told them to be quiet. This was Martha. Let’s just say it was a great test of patience, a test that I think I passed with a B- or so. Anyway, we did have a wonderful time and ate entirely too much food, but I did notice some interesting things while on board. Even though there was so much to do, so much to see, and so many new things to experience, my mind kept drifting back to Him. We would be sitting at dinner and I would find myself thinking of Jesus. Now I’m sure most Christians would wonder why that is so strange to me. Well, I just really didn’t expect to be sitting in a noisy dining room surrounded by people and food and find myself in a completely different world. And I do mean it was everywhere! I couldn’t escape his gentle pushing thoughts, songs of his love and grace, and the pulling desire to be alone with only Him. Sitting at the pool, watching a movie, walking around the deck, His pulsing heart was simply inescapable. Psalm 139:7-9 comes to mind when I think about this experience. It reads, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, you’re right hand will hold me fast.” Never did I understand how true and real this verse really is until it came to life in me this week. Even though I felt so distant from Him, he drew me ever closer. I couldn’t shake the tugging on my heart. I even went to the Christmas Eve Catholic Mass service that they had on the ship. It was completely foreign to me and utterly passionless, but still, I could sing praises to him and hear his word spoken, something my spirit desperately craved. The cruise docked back in Puerto Rico, where we stayed for another night. After waiting for two hours at the airport, we boarded our flight to Atlanta. Even on the flight I was reminded of how gracious our Father is. The movie playing was Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts. I watched this movie, based on a true story, about a completely self-centered woman looking for balance in her life. She ventures on this ridiculous journey to Italy and finally India to find this balance. She meets with an old medicine man and goes through this sort of meditation camp to find who she really is. In the end, although she thinks she has found love and happiness, she has really found just another pretty dress and lovely life to cover up the dying spirit and rotting flesh. Thank God we are a new creation. Thank God that his kingdom is upside down and backwards, that we must get lower to be exalted and we must die to live. How glorious is the narrow road.
Back to the trip. We landed in Atlanta, thank God for some cold weather, collected our luggage, and waited for my dad to get the car. As I sat on my suitcase near the baggage claim, my mind began to wander once again. I glanced at the signs above each belt to see where the baggage was coming from. I really was amazed at all the different places. There were people that came from Texas, Puerto Rico, South America, Philadelphia, and so many others. I just sat there thinking, these people don’t even realize that everyone around them has come from somewhere across the country and even the globe, and they are going to separate places even still. When do we stop and look at the people around us? When do we wonder where they’ve come from and where they are going? We really don’t, and this is when I realize that this is certainly a perspective that God has. He can look into a crowd of people, see where they’ve come from, where they’re going, and if those people will ever cross paths again. He knows every person’s destiny and can see where those destinies meet. My gosh, wouldn’t we look at people different if we saw the way He does. If we could only look at other people in this manner. If we could only understand that each person has a destiny that God has placed upon their life, that everywhere we go we see people who someday may change the world. But instead we pass through the airport without a second glance or thought, without even a silent prayer that God would protect the precious seeds inside his children, without so much as a blessing with our words. Today my perspective changed quite a bit, and on this vacation my heart has grown more hungry for Him. Every year people ask, “What is your new year’s resolution?” I usually don’t have an answer, but this year I think I do. Today on the plane I decided this, that this year I desire to fall head over heels in love with my Bridegroom every single day, over and over again, for the rest of my life. And in that journey, I believe that everything else will fall into its proper place.
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