A more poetic post, for those so inclined...
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Looking down across the flat land of Texas, sectioned by straight fences and winding rivers, I am allowing the feelings of leaving to finally take root. We leave behind a lifetime of loved ones, so many of them recently seen and embraced, and all their smiles and words of encouragement remain - sloshing over the top of my brimming love tank. (Thank you Gary Chapman - "The 5 Love Languages")
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We are flying West, away from home, and I can feel the miles of separation steadily increase as the land passes by. Just a couple of hours ago, I appreciated how my beloved Blue Ridge mountains appeared as frozen ripples in the Earth, stretching out to West Virginia, before melting into the flat brown farmlands of the mid-West.
In the season to come, God has new mountains for me to love, new rivers to ford, swim and fish, and new people to love and share in His joy. The boy inside of me has ached for years to live and work in/near the dirt and sunshine of God's glorious creation. How great is He who knows our hearts, and loves us! Surely, divine adventures await this boy! :-)
Psalms 103:11-17
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children's children.
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Chasing the day, the sunset's usual finale is stretching out into an overture of colors lingering on the horizon. We are promised an even longer night ahead, as Quantas will carry us across the Pacific to meet an Australian sunrise. Fourteen hours later, the same dawn will break upon the Blue Ridge.
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We have arrived in Australia, and I'm surrounded by jovial Aussies bantering on in their easy drawl, which I love. For my second breakfast of the "morning" (the first one perfectly supplied by Quantas a few hours ago), I have ordered "Baconeggs" with a "Long Black" (coffee) - both delicious, but frustratingly expensive in the airport. I am convinced that I'm an Aussi-accent natural...but Rachel is not entirely amused with me at the moment...
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The awareness that we are resting on the edge of something powerfully new returns randomly to wash over me. It's not exactly butterflies - more of a mini adrenaline rush of anticipation. But then, I think there is nothing more frustrating than arriving in a new country only to sit IN the airport terminal awaiting your next connecting flight. Some part of me is invisibly, perpetually, twitching - in frustration - as I sit quietly on a skinny bum that hates sitting...
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The birds eye view Queensland's arid landscape is not so dissimilar from Texas, but the ruddy earth here carries far fewer divisions of fence and river. But then, even in the moments between typing, the landscape has entirely changed, and I'm soaring above green mountains and teal green seas. What marvelous creation!
1 Chronicles 29:11
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
