Rules the Day

Our video about life and ministry in Haiti for this summer is almost finished.  I just needed one more photo...something to do with light.  Sofie was up what seemed 100 times last night, so finally around 5:30 I just got up...and decided to climb the antenna tower and get some shots of the sun rising.  

I got up there too early.  But I wasn't going to come down and go back up, so I hung out for a while, suspended in the ever lightening sky.  There are not a lot of completely silent moments in my life anymore, and even though I could see neighbors wakening and starting fires all around, no one even knew I was there...totally still.  

Birds flew by right at eye level, and looking down at the towering mango trees and at the places that God has called us to teach and to share His Word, I felt incredibly blessed. 

My thoughts drifted to Linda, a young woman who is dying in a small house, now tiny, right below me.  Maybe she's dying of AIDS.  Maybe it's some form of cancer.  She doesn't know, and the doctors told her there was nothing they could do, so for 6 months, she's been lying in bed.  Just dying.

A few days ago, with Matt, Junior, Rosie, Leandre and Augustin sitting around her, she asked Jesus to be HER Jesus.  Overcome to the point of streaming tears over her sins-now-pardoned, Linda's smile has turned sweet.  Deep.  Sincere.  

When we visited again yesterday, she seemed unaware of the horrific shape of her earthly body.  Unable to even lift her head, her skin is pulled tightly over each bone, her elbow, wrist and knee joints seeming huge compared to the rest of the body. 

 Laying unmoving our whole visit, Linda grinned and grinned, seemingly uninterested in her physical life.  She smiled at the girls.  Talked to us about the Bible her limp hand was resting on.  Introduced me to her son, Frantz, who is almost 12...though she is just 25.  

Linda's not real interested in talking about her past life--just her new "four day life", as she calls it.  Only four days old, I know Linda will lose her son and meet her Jesus in just a matter of moments--short of a miracle, which God may or may not have in store.  I don't pretend to know what God has in store.  We just try to be available for it.  

I prayed for Linda, snapping shots from time to time.  Thanked God for her joy and the way it is quite subconsciously touching me, just as the warmth of the sun started penetrating my skin almost the moment its head appeared.   Thanked God for another day in this world, and for the day we won't be in it anymore.  Thanked God for sleeping friends below, for our families.  Thanked God for you.

Thanked God for awakening the sun and pulling it up over the mountains, reminding the world again Who rules the heavens...Who rules the earth...Who rules the tides of the world and of life...Thanked God for reminding me Who rules my life, and for ruling it.