Good morning…
During the summer months, my work commitment as Women’s Ministry Director at Northside Church reduces down to roughly eight hours each week, and this unique summer my husband Steve is gearing up for his new role as Chaplain Emeritus at The Lovett School. (Retiring from the Head Chaplain position after 29 years, Steve will now develop and lead a global travel program for adults, will offer pastoral care and counseling, and will perform weddings and funerals for those in our community.) One month ago today, May 25th, began a fresh, fascinating whirlwind for Steve and for me.
While he led a ten-day trip to Greece, I enjoyed time with friends in the fertile Santa Inez Valley near Santa Barbara, California and visited my parents in Olmsted Township, Ohio. Then I tagged along with him as he performed two amazing destination weddings, one in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico and the other in quaint Little Compton, Rhode Island. Between weddings, our whole family of seven loved vacationing together for a week in the breathtaking beauty of Banff, Canada.
Greece. California. Ohio. Puerto Rico. Canada. Rhode Island. What an unusually meaningful month this has been. Returning home to the regular, to the routine, to the restorative also feels so very good. Either at home or away, as Mary Oliver notices, “Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.”
The Lord says, ‘Am I a God in only one place?
No! I see everything everywhere!
Do you think you can hide
in a place where I cannot see you?
You should know that I am everywhere,
in the heavens above and on the earth.’
That is what the Lord says (Jeremiah 23:23-24, EASY).
Might we each learn to stand exactly where we are sometimes, allowing ourselves to be blessed by the God who is everywhere?
…Sue…
