Let me be an instrument of Thy peace

Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.” Genesis 20:4-5

Beyond the marvels of choosing to lie to protect the beauty of one’s one hundred-year-old wife, this odd little tale reminds me that I certainly don’t know the rest of the story.  I get so focused in on my particularly strand of DNA twisting in time, that over and over again I forget to view life through the God So Loved the World glasses. And the world is very big and He has left the ninety and nine in the fold to chase sheep. And to speak in dreams to heathens that certainly are more righteous than I.  

And speaking of the righteous, may I be counted among the “even ten LORD?” whose presence would have been salt enough to preserve Sodom. And while lingering and lying seem to part and parcel of how the Ones Who Should Know Better stumble through life, let me learn from their mistakes.

And remind me that just as acts of kindness can ripple outward, so can ripples of disobedience wreck havoc upon the innocent. James reminds us that words are a flame that can set a forest on fire.   Or I can sow seeds of love that take root and bring forth life.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my Strength and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

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.