Homesick...

Everything is wonderful here - the new school is finally beginning to take shape (the surveyors came and stuck posts in the ground at each corner, accentuated by bright orange spray-painted lines). We had a fundraiser with lots of parent involvement and laughs tonight. My students and I had a particularly great field trip on Monday. The past weekend was an exceedingly wonderful one, complete with several hikes, many great conversations, and important time with God.

This Wednesday, a friend was killed. He played basketball, football, board games, and just hung out with us. He set himself up in the DJ business and was always ready to lend a helping hand with a church outreach or graduation party. He was a very accepting, easy-going person. And he's dead now.

I'm very angry because it wasn't his time to go. It's never someone's time to go by the hand of another human. I'm afraid that justice may not be given. I'm afraid for his family, having to deal with one more tragedy in a long list. I'm afraid Satan will win, as he tries to break people apart, destroy lives, and most of all eliminate hope.

But there's the good news, right there. He has already lost. Jesus, at the cross, won the war. So... All things will be right. ...someday...

And in the meantime I'm homesick. For a place where death doesn't take loved ones, a place where freedom and love and hope reign. "Our citizenship is in heaven" Phil. 3:20. But. God calls me to make my home in the now, in the messiness and growing pains of this square inch of His universe. One day, all will be right. Today, all I have to do is live, acknowledging His rightness and truth and love and in-charge-ness. And pray - "Let Your kingdom COME and Your will be done... ON EARTH as it is in heaven."

Please pray for this young man's family. Thankfully, they are part of God's kingdom. On earth. As it is in heaven.