reasons for thanks

today i was working on updating my boss' to do list and came across this action item:

confirm a speaker on the environment issue in time for platform retreat

that was back in april. there's also hardcopy of an e-mail from sometime in may posted on the left side of my cube regarding the need to confirm an 'environment speaker'. a mere two months later, denise-margaret thompson (a prof at the university of trinidad and tobago) graciously accepted our invitation to speak at urbana and agreed to join the other speakers at the retreat almost last minute. it just so happened that her family vacation started the day after the last day of the retreat, so it worked out well. so after months of research and countless conversations for nikki, we have a speaker from a country whose environment is very much being affected by politically and/or economically driven decisions made by the US and its own government- what a gift for us to hear from this perspective. so as i sat at my desk, crossing off some of nikki's to do's, i was reminded that there's Someone Else who's also planning and shaping this conference.

sometimes i find it hard to see God at work in the mundane. as i trudge along the endless list of action items, flagged e-mails of varying degrees of importance, and projects that never seem urgent enough until it's almost too late, i forget the big picture. and honestly, i still don't know what the big picture means. what does it mean that 'he dwelled among us'? what are the meanings and the implications of the incarnation- historically, theologically, but most of all, for me personally? somewhere in my gut, i know that if i truly understood and fully grasped this truth, my life wouldn't be the same...


beginnings of new life, from the pot of petunias he gave me in celebration of our six months. he remembered that i much prefer pots over bouquets. :)