I sometimes forget…
that I live in West Africa. Living
on a ship means I easily forget that there’s an outside world where rain falls
and thunder clatters, that there are cool breezes (and hot ones too) and
flowers that smell and butterflies that flutter – huge ones, tiny ones, in all
sorts of colours. I sometimes forget that there are rainbows in the tumbling
waterfalls and that there’s lush lush greenery blanketing the dramatic
landscape – mountains and never ending plateaus. I sometimes forget the beauty
of village life – the baby having a roadside bath, held precariously by one arm
over a bucket, the girls - necks bent, having their hair braided ready for a
new week, the squealing chickens and goats tied to the tops of taxis and the flamboyant
colours that make up a woman’s dress. I sometimes forget the giggles of small
children at the sight of a ‘white man’, the awe I feel as I look onward at a
woman carrying a heavy load on her head and a baby on her back, or the beads of
sweat on a young boys forehead as he carries tonight’s firewood home. I
sometimes forget what it’s like to laugh – really laugh – and I remember as I
stand under a waterfall’s pounding flumes. I so easily forget the joy and deep
peace that sweeps over me as I hear birds tweeting in the tress and the bright
yellow weaver birds tending to their nests.
I remember thinking the same when
we were sailing last – those twinkling blues seas and leaping dolphins, the
flying fish showing off their iridescent blues and the incredible starry night
skies. It took a weekend away a few hours north from the hustle and bustle of
life in a steel can to remember… but it leaves me wondering – are these
beauties there all the time? Does that rich rolling landscape get folded up and
put away when I’m not there to look at it? I wonder if the trees and
butterflies are just playing along? Where does it all go when there’s no-one to
‘wow’ at this creative bliss? Does it all get packed up and filed away? Does
God run a few steps ahead of us saying, ‘crikey! she’s on her way! Butterflies
- take your place, Mountain - get back there! And Thunder, I thought I told you
to clatter! That’s it… good job guys, she’s enjoying it’….???!!! But truth is,
it’s there all the time. I need to marvel more.
The reason this all touches me so
much, why I find myself saying, ‘ohhhhhh… sorrrry! I’ve been living life in my
beige steel box… forgetting that there is beauty and butterflies… sometimes I
forget’. And it makes me think of all the ways I choose beige over butterflies.
Where I choose disappointment over hope, guilt over grace, incessant worry over
peace, bitterness over forgiveness, lack over praise and thanks… and all the
time, God is so desperately wanting to invade my life with love, life, colour,
power, joy, laughter, hope. God is so good… and sometimes I forget. It’s there
all the time.
And even on this beige steel box,
there’s plenty of beauty. You should see the ortho kids walking up and down the
corridor with their legs all in casts, cheering each other on, ‘bravo, bravo!!’.
VVF surgery starts this week and I can’t wait to sense their joy as they put on
cloaks of joy and leave behind their spirits of despair. I’m encouraged as I
see tumours disappearing and life being poured in. It’s sunday evening and a
new week is about to begin.. bring it on….
Love always, KWW
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