It's a Small World after All. . . 

Today (Thursday, June 6th, 2013) offered up a unique surprise.  After breakfast, I was sitting in the lobby of the Open Gate when a man and woman entered.  They said hello and I immediately noticed the absence of a British accent. The wife introduced herself and then introduced her husband.  I introduced myself and shook hands with them both.

I asked where they were from.  The husband said they were from Snellville, Georgia.  They asked where my home is.  To save time, I said, "Richmond, Virginia."  The wife looked at me in surprise.  

"My husband grew up in Richmond!"

"What brings you to Lindisfarne?" I asked.

"We're here on sabbatical through the Lilly Endowment, studying Celtic spirituality.  We just came from Ireland and the Isle of Iona.  Last night we stayed at a bed and breakfast on Lindisfarne because we couldn't get a room at the Open Gate.  What about you?"

You know the story from here.  We chatted for almost a half an hour.  

He is a Presbyterian minister serving a church outside of Atlanta and is a graduate of Union Seminary.  We have mutual friends.  Who would have thought that you could cross an ocean and meet someone who knows people that you also know?

It was truly a God moment!

Our group left for Scotland this morning at 11:30 AM.  In twenty minutes we had crossed the border and drove to St. Abb's Head Nature Preserve.  These are rugged cliffs just north of Eyemouth and south of Edinburgh.

The scenery was amazing!  The gorse and rock rose on the hillsides are in full bloom.  The fields are green and dotted with sheep and cattle.  We at lunch on a high hillside overlooking the North Sea.  The fog had lifted, the mist had stopped, the sun was out in full force and the day was bright and shiny as a new penny.

I looked out to sea, scanning from end to end of the horizon, considering how wide, how deep, and how broad is the sea.  How beautiful to behold all that God has created, to feel the warmth of the sun, the strong, steady current of the breeze, to smell the salt air, to hear the cry of the Gannets and watch as they dive head first into the water to feed, and to ponder the richness of all God has made.

How blessed we are!  I really need to get out more!

No, I mean it.  Desk jockeying is fine for what it is, but I think I am going to make the commitment to work outside at least one day a week, weather permitting.  I know God can and does speak to us anywhere, but I think I am better at paying attention when I am away from the familiar and forced to see things in a new and different way.

Perhaps that is true for us all.

Even so, I have to remember that no matter how wonderful everything I am seeing and hearing and experiencing is, it pales in comparison to what God has yet to do in my life, both now and in eternity.

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."  (1 Corinthians 2:9)

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