Daddy, does God have feet?

I really like this: "I was pleased to discover the God of Scripture is much larger than this. Everybody who met God in the Bible was afraid of Him. People were afraid of even the angels, so the angels always had to calm people down just to have a conversation. I would think that would be very annoying if you were an angel, always having to settle people down just to talk. It makes you wonder if the first thousand years in heaven will have us running around screaming like we would during an earthquake, the whole time God saying to us in an enormous, booming voice, Calm down, calm down, will you, it's just Me." (From Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller)

That's how I had imagined heaven being like too. I imagine myself being totally afraid because I am in such a foreign place. My mom keeps trying to tell me that heaven will be a very comforting place and we'll feel like we're at home right away, but she's having some trouble convincing me. Anyway, the point of the passage is actually about fear. Donald Miller was making a point about how so few fear God and so many act like they are the center of the universe.

My high for the week: I saw the most amazing shooting star. It wasn't just any shooting star either. It didn't just last for an instant barely to be seen by anyone. I could see the fire blazing on this one for what felt like an hour, but was probably around a second.

I've been spending a little more time outside lately. I've been working so much lately that I haven't enjoyed the nature around me. I live in a small enough town that one doesn't even have to leave the comfort of their own backyard to see the stars. Although it might be a little better if I did. I go walking around the town in the country on my nights off and it gives me a little time to do some thinking. One night I was thinking about kids. I have seen a lot of amazing things happen with kids this summer. I have seen the death of a child, I have seen the birth of a child, I have seen children at play, and I have seen children who live miserable lives.

When I returned home this summer I was home in time to see the death of a beautiful little girl. She was only 9 maybe 10 years old and she had flipped her four-wheeler. It was a tragedy for the family and for the whole community. Our preacher said at the funeral that the little girl was in heaven and she had more understanding than we could even imagine now. Tears still form in my eyes just at the mention of her name.

I was part of a children's sports camp this summer back in Topeka. I wanted to become more involved with my church, and I saw the camp as a perfect opportunity. It was a five-day camp. Five days with a bunch of little brats. Great. My attitude changed over the course of the camp, however, and I was wishing it could last another five days. The kids had such an effect on me that I did not want it to end. I really believe that I got more benefit from the camp than the kids did. When we're little kids, I don't think we understand the way we really affect people. I gave a little dandelion to my single and aging neighbor for mother's day one year and I brought tears to her eyes. The funny thing about it is that I didn't remember doing that. My parents told me about it years later. No wonder she gives me hugs every time she comes back home.

The Global Night Commute was an event put on in April for the Invisible Children of Africa. The Invisible Children are children in Uganda who commute to town every night and back to their homes every morning just to protect themselves from guerillas who will steal them away and turn them into child soldiers. You can learn more at Invisiblechildren.com. In April, my friends and I joined many others in Topeka who joined many others cities around the world walking to various places in our towns and sleeping over night. We walked to the capitol and, since it was raining, slept in a parking garage in down town Topeka. These children have really been on my heart lately. I'm not sure of the reason, but I'm still looking.

Six days ago my friend had a baby. He is a beautiful, healthy baby boy named Aiden Antonio. I went to visit my friend and her baby in the hospital the day after he was born and I held that beautiful baby boy. I have always been one of the youngest in my extended family. I have one cousin who is younger than I am and I now have one second cousin who is about 2 1/2 who I hardly get to see. My lack of experience with kids is painfully obvious. I stood there just looking at Aiden and wondering what to do. Then my friend's mom asks me if I want to hold him. I can hold him? He was just born! Yes, I want to hold him! So I awkwardly did so. Look at this tiny little squirt in my arms. He's actually a living, breathing human being, and he is so beautiful. I always try to hold new born babies when I am around them. I think it is getting a little less awkward every time.

The point of all this little kid stuff is actually all about Jesus. A friend reminded me last weekend about a story in the Bible about Jesus and a bunch of little squirts like Aiden, except maybe a little bigger. He made me see the story in a different light. There's all these little kids playing around Jesus and crawling all over them while he's hugging them and kissing them and telling them how he loves them and how special they are. What my friend was wondering was what kind of person Jesus must have been for the kids to be so excited to be around him. They were obviously loving it so much that a bunch of selfish adults were becoming jealous of all the attention they were getting. Jesus was there to cast their selfish thoughts away by telling them to have hearts like those little innocent children or they would never enter the kingdom of heaven. The story tells us something about how important kids are too. If Jesus paid so much attention to them maybe we should too. It makes me want to find out what it was about Jesus that made those kids so drawn to him. I want to be more like that.


At the end of the Vacation Bible School program at my church last Sunday the Bible School director shared some very wise words in my opinion. She talked about how hard it was to deal with the kids at times when they were being bad and how frustrated all of the leaders got. Then when they were putting together the program for church they had been looking at the old program from the year before. The first thing they saw was a solo by Danielle, the little girl who had passed at the begginning of the summer. The director told us that no matter how hard it can be to deal with kids we should never lose our patience because someday they may never come home, and each one of them is so precious. So go home and hug your kids and tell them you love them. That's something I need to remember any time I'm around children and when I have my own kids. All five of them. ;)

My low for the week: There's been a few times this week that I've been really frustrated with my parents and I have had trouble controlling my temper. I really need to get focused again and get back to the way things were.

Discoveries: Godspell. My mom took me to the dinner theater in Dodge City on Thursday and we saw a musical called Godspell. It's about the life of Jesus. It wasn't a professional dinner theater, but it was still really good. I'd love to see the play done by a professional group of actors. I have a feeling it wouldn't be as good as this one.