Yesterday we had a family outing of a most unusual nature. We got up, finished compiling last minute letters of recommendation and pleas, drove an hour and a half to our state capital and dropped off our formal request to be forgiven by the state for crimes against each other nearly 15 years ago. Then, in keeping with the theme, we went to the zoo. Thoughts of anxiety were pushed down, compacted somewhere and replanted with prayers to expedite, do the right thing, forgive us, let us be free to bring Marina home. We watched the animals as they were pacing in the heat with nowhere to go, little Meerkats guarding cement tunnels of family. Defenseless, but on guard and ready to sound the alarm. They remind me of us and the world around us. We burrow and tunnel and get ourselves into all sorts of tight spots. We count on someone to watch over and keep us out of trouble as we burrow deeper. Should the alarm of danger sound, where do we go? What do we do? Humanity seems to dig faster. We do not know how to count on our friends and family anymore as we build secret lives that envelope the dark...
Then there is the example of us. I am gratefeul we have indeed been rescued just for the asking. Well, just for the asking and believing. Man that seems so incredibly impossible for some folks. And yet I used to top that list. The miserable one in charge. My heart was a wreck so many years ago. It is nothing that the police could have captured on paper. It was not Tully's fault, though his heart looked like mine. Socially broken. Emotionally windblown. Years of healing, Jesus working daily, by the minute, by the nanosecond. See us now? We are better beyond our wildest expectations. Lightyears from perfect but lightyears from where we have been. Now we stand in our zoo-box, being examined to see if we might still be wild by people who do not know us. We would like to think we can stand up straighter or brush our hair and wear the right thing to pass the test. But they are hopefully looking at our hearts. That is where the real opportunity to see us lies to see the taming of the broken and the re-release of a new creature, capable of love as it has been taught to us by the great Teacher. The decision is weighing on our hearts but we know it is in the hands of the beautiful God who patiently molds us. He will take us where we are needed. We really hope it is to Marina. Another adventure of a lifetime sitting in a zoo-box across the sea.
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