Dearly beloved, we are gathered here together...

Today I am grateful.



Yesterday was Tuesday, and it was 2:00 in the afternoon -- not a typical day for a wedding celebration, but I went to a ceremony for the renewing of vows for a wonderful couple -- Simon and Elizabeth. I don't know them well.... I met the lovely couple, who have been married for 25 years, in Thailand a few years ago and while here for a conference, they decided to renew their vows.

Although I don't know them well....... I cried.



I cried as I remembered.



I remembered attending a baptism while in Thailand at the swimming pool of a beautiful hotel and the oneness I felt with the believers their who were gathered to celebrate.


I remembered sitting in a small, simple, thatched home as we worshiped with people in a church Simon planted after many came to know God through Simon's practical help of food and medicine after the tsunami. I remembered the sincerity in the faces of the believers as they closed their eyes and folded their hands in prayer.


My mind skipped back a few years and remembered crawling up a tiny spiral stairway to a room built in a steeple of a Russian Orthodox church where around 15 people (mostly Russian Orthodox priests) gathered around a 4 foot table and shared lunch after the service. I was the only American and they spoke little English as we ate, but somehow I felt like I fit.


I remembered cooking lunch with Sveta, who worked in the preschool cafeteria in St. Petersburg that I rented as a sleeping room at night and moved out of every day so the students could eat lunch.


I remembered attending my first Passover, in the home of my dear friend who was the local rabbi in Lubbock, at the time, and I remembered the feeling of priviledge to be sitting with that group of people, on that special holiday, where they showed me such acceptance and love.

I paused for a moment to think of this dear friend and how she and her family loving took me into their home as one of the family for months when I found out I was pregnant.


I thought of one of the dearest women I've known, Helene, who was the only member of her family to survive the holocaust -- I remembered our fun at the bingo hall, I remembered her smoke-hoarse voice that would preface "she's a gentile and isn't going to convert, but goes to the synagogue" when she introduced me....
and then I thought of her funeral and how badly I wanted to throw myself on her coffin and weep because of the love I felt for her and the regret for not knowing her more.


As I type this blog I think of:

Mario -- the cook I worked with in college who worked drag shows at night.

The village tailor in India who I would visit for my mending, but I would stay and linger becuase he would talk for a while about his family and about life.

Gira, the red head in Russia who would come and talk to me for hours through charades even though neither of us could communicate with one another in language.

Sham, the dear man who studied with me at the school of intercession, worship and spiritual warfare -- I came home to my comfortable life in America, he went home to take his strong stance as a pastor in an area known for persecution of Christians in India.

Royalty from Fiji who I've called friend.

I thought of that sense of belonging that I felt, just recently, at the mosque when they so welcomed me around their table at the Islamic Center of Lubbock family night meal.

Face after face of amazing men and women flash before my eyes... many of you are some of the strange gifts from God I've been given.


And I've thought all day about the fact that it IS a priviledge. To know people, to love people, to meet precious people for only just a moment and be welcomed into a part of their lives.... it is such a privilege.



I cried because I was thankful for yet another moment of priviledge to share this special time with these beautiful people.



Ezekiel has been on this kick where he asks me why we aren't "normal" and gives me lists of things we do that don't fit that category. Today, more than ever, I am glad to not be normal. I am priviledged to be at the right place at the right time, over and over again, so that I can share amazing moments wth God's amazing people.