and it rains on the just and the unjust alike

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Romans 4:17

Righteousness isn’t about being perfect. We just aren’t. Romans two and three and four make that perfectly clear.

But Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
    and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

God gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. That is the whole marvel of creation. He speaks, and life appears.  In an empty void without form.

The early morning clouds are different here, as I watch from my bright orange couch eleven stories up, settled with a cup of coffee overlooking the Hudson River. A siren and a few truck rumbles squeeze into the silence and then dissipate, leaving it unaffected. Outside the blustery greyness batters an American flag above a Greek-revivalist POW memorial. I read a real-live rustling New York Times this morning rather than my two-minute tradition of scanning the electronic headlines. It certainly adds more heft-in-my-hands weight to the world’s activities.

The thing about traveling is that it is a blessed reminder about my smallness. More heft to the written Word and the expanse which He addresses. The world is so very much bigger than my daily up and down Speedway dashes. Jincheng and the two cats and I flew to Kennedy airport by way of LAX, so that is a lot of perspective. But it all ties together. Oddly enough Fluffy and Henry in the carry-on bags were a conversation magnet. We chatted with a family from Pakistan, a salesman from Berlin and a woman whose cat died seven years ago and she still grieves. And as we waited at baggage claim, Fluffy and Henry introduced us to an NGO staff member and a Nepalese water engineer stacking up boxes of water purification machines and I was so very happy to get their names and card because I just assigned John and William Nepal yesterday for their biome research project which includes the requirement of interviewing a local water expert and/or NGO. Cha-ching. And I gave them my two United Airlines lounge passes because they have six hours at JFK before another 14-hour trip. With seven boxes.

And the world is not so big. It is all bound together by His work and His purpose and His beauty out of nothing.

Hope beats eternal.