No wonder everyone takes off their shoes.

Y yo, si soy levantado de la tierra, atraeré a todos a mí mismo. Juan 12, 32 

Como podremora agradecer Tu gracia y Tu bondad? Sólo siendo misericordioso con nuestros semejantes; como Tú, eres con nosotros. Amén. Elsa Tamez

 The word "men" is not in the text, it is only (pantav), "all": Beza's most ancient copy, and some others, and the Vulgate Latin version read (panta), "all things".

And it is a great mystery, this future tense statement, how the good purpose of God will be worked and what it will look like. But His purpose reflects His goodness, and in this we put our trust. 

And last night, as deniz and Nicole and I scooped up eggplant and humus and feta cheese with bits of bread, we talked. And deniz asked me how I felt about traveling. And I told her that for me it was an act of worship. Because it is all so easy for me to get overly focused on my small part of history and forget the rest.

But when I wander I am reminded of the grandeur of our God. 

 “After the one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down aeons of emptiness, heaping profusions on profligacies with ever-fresh vigor. The whole show has been on fire from the word go. I come down to the water to cool my eyes. But everywhere I look I see fire; that which isn't flint is tinder, and the whole world sparks and flames.” 
― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

But more than the sparkling strait Bosporus or even the soaring Hagia Sophia, that lady sitting over there, in the striped blouse, with the packages piled at her feet while she sips tea, is an extravagant gesture of creation. 

The same grace and kindness He has shown me is indeed a marvelous thing. And although the road is at times rough, and sometimes dark, like climbing up four flights of the circular staircase to Nicole's apartment without the little flashlight, His mercy is tangible, quantifiable and True. 

And last night I expounded on my favorite science thingie ad nausum for my kiddos: the If/Then statement. If this love of God is true for me, me with all of my complexities and connections and perspectives and fallibilities and me-ness, and brings me to my knees in worship, what then shall I say to this God as I wander a city of thirteen million souls, layered upon layered for centuries by the sea.

Holy.