The tile on these steps is still warm from the sun's heat this previous afternoon. But now it's setting. There's still enough light for the plethora of people here. A group of boys play soccer. Two moms sit and chat while their daughters do likewise. A dog runs by me to its elderly owner.
Right now I'm thinking about the birds here. (Haha yes, I should work on my subject transitions, but it is what it is.)
Spain's selections of birds is rather standard, with a few added tropical species here and there. Doves and pigeons are quite prominent, especially in the plazas, like the one I'm sitting in as I write this.
One species that surprised me, for whatever reason, was the sparrow. She's pretty common here. Brown back, light chest. Small. Flittering and twittering hither and thither around the plazas and such. Pretty timid.
I was watching one the other day in this same plaza actually. A mother and daughter were feeding pigeons, and this little guy (or gal) decided to help itself to the sunflower seeds they were tossing on the ground.
I couldn't help but be reminded about how I am that sparrow.
Anyone who asked me how I planned to grow in my faith this semester abroad will know that it revolved around a central concept.
Trust.
Not even just trust. Faith really.
Faith in God to sustain me.
Going abroad obviously comes with its fair share of fears and trust issues. Like, for instance, getting lost in the calles (like really lost), or trusting that my conversation in Spanish about changing my flight would go well (even though I didn't have a wide enough vocabulary to clearly articulate what I even wanted to do). In the end, I found my way, and the conversation went well.
Good luck? Karma? I don't really believe in these things. I believe God has a profound intervention in each of our lives. He transcends but is immanent in all things.
This is love. Being willing to reach out through the darkness, dinginess, expanse of an unloving universe to care for us and love us where we are.
It is His nature to do so. There is nothing He enjoys more.
So he takes care of us. In all things. We need not worry about anything.
This has been something that I've been trying to learn. In all things, I am learning to consciously acknowledge God has control over every situation.
And how incredibly freeing and liberating it is.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6:25-27
No comments:
Post a Comment