Eden Leaking Through

Sitting on the dunes at the edge of the Grand Traverse Bay as I write this. Waves gently lap the shore. The sun is coming up behind me. The ripples on the water dance in that magical first light of day. I wonder why it is that God has allowed so much of the original wonder that He created on this planet to filter through the thick fog of sin. We have badly broken this place and it seems to me that God should have abandoned us to our own devices...with the natural consequence that complete chaos and brokenness become the absolute rule. A kind of permanent post-nuclear winter from the fallout of the sin-bomb. And, truthfully, to a large extent, that is true of the world. Yet there are still moments of beauty, tranquility and peace. Like this one.

As I walk out to the waters edge this morning, two young rabbits hop themselves out of my way. A pair of mallards float peacefully in the shallows. The sun is warming my back and it feels almost personal. The wild flowers that crest the tips of the grasses on the dunes display a beauty that seems wasteful and extravagant. Grass, this beautiful? Why?

Heaven On Earth

Traveling from Papua back to the United States is always a bit of a Twilight Zone experience.  I'm convinced if I took most Papuans and whisked them off to America, they would believe that they had died and gone to heaven.  At least until they figured out that they can't get sago here.  Everything works, everything is new, everything is sterile, so many options, so much wealth, so much fun stuff to do.  On the surface there don't appear to be any problems.  And that is a problem.

Perhaps the feeling of stepping into utopia was a bit more intense for us this time...the tropical disease department took one last parting shot at Cameron and gave him dengue fever on the first leg of our journey. If you think malaria is bad, try dengue on for size.  Google it.  He was one sick little boy.

So stepping into a world where the skeeters aren't out to kill you feels a bit like paradise.  Of course, it probably didn't help that we got off the airplane and went straight into the beautiful Amish countryside of northern Indiana.