the Giver

This morning I walked down the hall at Emmaus, from one end to the other, and spent a few minutes in each class.  EVERY time I do this I am so blessed.

Each classroom I entered, the chairs are FULL.  I've never cared about numbers and I don't care today, but in light of my time talking with several students about the Emmaus family lately, I was blessed to find each room full of FAMILY.  Good family.  Family who is obviously greatly affected by the study of His Word, as we must be, by the fruit of how they love each other.

Each classroom I entered, the teaching was dynamic.  Like, drew me in, right away.  I wanted to plop down and stay...swirling through passionate debates on Job and how sickness works in light of an all-powerful God (Wisdom Literature), through study on the light of Jesus even in the Abrahamic days (Intro to OT) through an empowering look at how to trace all things through, from, and to God (Systematic Theology) and though a passionate and relevant debate about how to deal with issues within the community of your church and outside of courts (Civil Law).

Each classroom I entered, the community was so rich. Talking to each other like brothers and sisters, learning from each other like family. Laughing together like siblings.

This morning when Nora was crying (and almost had me there) because she wants to "get on the airplane and go to Jayla's house", I felt the pains of having been here so very long.  A few moments later, I felt the likewise joys of having been here so long, because those walks down the hallway wouldn't mean nearly as much if I didn't remember well the many days, the long years, where all that I found in the classroom this morning was NOT there.  They wouldn't mean so much if I didn't know, well, the long and deep and complicated need for Jesus in this part of the world.

Best, as I visited, is the obvious thick presence of the Giver of the Word we are studying.  

So bittersweet was His time on earth, and so bittersweet our own short years - for God is at work and it is often painful. He is at work, and it is often beautiful, too.