"On a good day, enjoy yourself;
On a bad day, examine your conscience.
God arranges for both kinds of days
So that we won't take anything for granted."*
I close my eyes and my mind races through the memories of that milestone year for our family. It was 2013. I chuckle as I look at those words on the page, its no surprise to me that thirteen has always been my favorite number. It's the holiest number. It's a band of beat of men following a carpenter Rabbi. It's a band of brothers who came to represent tribes, a nation, and a promise. The promise that a beat up carpenter-Rabbi fulfilled.
Two-thousand and thirteen is a milestone in the field of my life. It stands above the sometimes rocky and sometimes smooth landscape. It begs the question, "What happened here?"
I don't remember ever seeing that video before, but surely I must have? It was at the very end of my Google Photos drive. No, I'm sure I've never seen it. I am confident that it was meant for today. Google pieced together that year for me and that video is my monument, my milestone, even my own raised Ebeneezer.
From China to Guatemala with a brand new baby who was gripping the hearts of her new big brother and sister. Infant hears that heard Mandarin, English, and Spanish. Crossing hemispheres and cultures in a twelve month spanse of time and space and motion.
What happened here? What would make a family travel to China to adopt their second international child while big brother kept seeing baby girls plopped into his once quiet home? What would make that same family sell and give everything they owned away and land in a town in Guatemala with 15 suitcases holding their only belongings?
Language school, a failed orphanage project and personal saving lost when those they trusted changed course, misery turning to success when by faith they became teachers, principals, pastors, and project leaders, and finally some 4 years later as they stood in the dust of their labors, realizing that it was time to go home.
What happened here?
No regrets. No mistakes. Nothing to ever want to do over. These are the stories of living stones.
Massevot.
*Ecclesiastes 7:14-15
1 Peter 3:15-16 That's right! 😂
1 Peter 2:4-6 🙌
Screenshot - not a video |