I’m a mess today. We have two bottle lambs which means I get to get up at night to feed them. I didn’t like that part when my kids were babies and I sure don’t like it with lambs. Sleep is amazing. Especially when you don’t get enough.
Aw, aren’t they cute? They’re stinking up my house.
As I was finishing up feeding the lambs early this morning and putting more wood on the fire I sat browsing facebook. You know how sometimes I hate it? There are other times when I love it. And hate it. All at the same time.
I love it because I have moved approximately 2000 miles away from my home. Where I grew up. Where I had really awesome friends. Where even though people call it things like the “Left Coast” and the “land of fruits and nuts,” those were my people. It was comfortable.
And even though we have made a wonderful life here, I still get homesick. I miss it. I miss my people. Because while we have awesome friends here now, too, it’s different. Each place, here and the West Coast, hold unique relationships. I’m finally beginning to embrace that. And I think, I hope, I’m beginning to understand that one isn’t “better” than the other.
They are different. They are special. And what makes them special isn’t what they have to offer, it’s the people. Because with each person, each friendship, is a unique story only they have. A story that shapes them and makes them who they are. Sometimes it’s good things like a happy childhood, doing well in school, having a great job. Sometimes it’s bad things like having an alcoholic parent, experiencing abuse, being told it would have been better had you never been born. These things shape us, make us who we are.
I have friends with all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of beliefs. It doesn’t change how I feel about them. I may not agree with everything but it doesn’t make me like them less. So the “sometimes” that I like facebook, it’s when I get to read about my friends lives. Sometimes it’s exciting, buying a new house or having a baby. But sometimes it’s sad or stressful.
In the last couple of days there has been quite a few of the sad or stressful. Things that are making my friends hurt. Or maybe it hasn’t just been the last couple of days… Have I just been blind to it? Because not everyone puts their hurts on facebook.
This morning after I got the fire roaring again I headed back to bed. But sleep would not come again. I kept thinking of my friends and the things they’re dealing with. And it occurred to me that everyone is dealing with something.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” -Matthew 11:28
So I got out of bed and prayed. Because I can’t fix any of it. But I know the One who can. So I went to Him. I prayed for the few friends who I knew what was going on, the hurt they’re going through. Then I started praying for other people. Because even though I don’t know everyone’s problems, He does.
And then He showed me this.
Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all. -Proverbs 22:2
As if to really drive the point home. With all the differences that can separate the human race, we have one thing in common. The Lord is the Maker of them all. If my Creator is your Creator…
I wonder what would happen if I started praying like this everyday. Because just on a selfish level, the closeness with the Maker is epic. It’s addictive. I mean, really, why wouldn’t someone want this?
And not so selfish, what if it changed lives?