Blankets and Kisses

I am so thankful for days like these. Days where hot chocolate and cuddling with children watching Ernest Goes to Africa, listening to laughter and rain falling outside is perfect. As I woke up this morning, I expected to see the sun shining but instead watched the rain fall outside of my window. I drew my blanket closer to me as I thought about the comforting love of the Savior and felt the cold air outside. It's not too often that it's cold here. But on these days, I'm reminded of the love and perfect grace Christ gives us. Like when you wear a white shirt, it doesn't matter how dirty you are at the end of the day because the hugs and back rides of little ones are more important. I'm reminded each time the children are filthy and are covered in dirt, you can't help but to pick them up and cover them in kisses. Each time a small, helpless baby falls asleep in your arms with her tiny fingers wrapped around yours, I can't help but be in awe. The Lord sings over us with His unfailing love each day; yet, I believe we are so close minded to the ways that he reminds us that we can't even see it. We need to open our minds to the mysterious ways of God because He is revealing Himself more than we are even aware of. Even now, as my 6 year old sweet girl sits with me at the table drawing and learning her numbers in English (her third language), I'm humbled at the feet of Jesus.

It's on days like these that I'm reminded that His love is better than life.

"O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands."

 Psalm 63

Living in the Moment

Many people think that when you're living in Africa that the hardest part will be getting use to not having the things you usually have in America, to give up the comforts of your normal life. The opposite is true. No, to live in Africa means you have to learn to live in the moment. It doesn't mean having a specific agenda that will actually go according to planned. If you say you'll leave at five in the morning, it actually means you'll probably leave at seven instead. It means that you learn to laugh at yourself more than usual and get use to everyone knowing what's going on in your life. Everyone is friends whether you've known them five years or five minutes (especially if you can speak one or two words in there language). It means you may be working in a medical clinic where a small enfant comes in screaming and crying with a cut open and infected foot while a fourteen year old boy is being rushed in from the road with a fresh, it-just-happened, motorbike accident, blood gushing all over the floor. Africa is not a place you would dream of living in with its impoverished land and suffering around every corner. But on days like these, it's everything I want. Where after just stitching a leg back together you're laughing and dancing with your friends to some small radio with music you don't even know. Where when it pours and storms outside, you run to the roof dancing in the rain while chasing the children in the compound, trying not to slip in the red mud. But really because you fall over someone because you're all gathered in a house singing and praising God; laughing and reading the Bible. 

 This is the life that I've been called to live and I never want to miss a day of it. Here in this small country called Togo, life is being made new; it makes everything seem so small. Watching children less than 10 years old fight over food in a poor village puts things into perspective. It's not something you see everyday and it makes everything else seem unimportant in your life. This is what it means to live in the moment. That when all you see is suffering and anguish all around you, you look for anything good and beautiful to praise God for. It may be a sunrise or sunset. Maybe laughing with wound patients or the laughter of school children just outside of the church. It can even be friendships forming and later coming together in prayer and crying together. I guess that's how God sees our lives. Though we see past mistakes and brokeness in our lives, he sees the beauty instead. This is what grace looks like. 

We need to start living in the moment.