Family

My birthday seems to have fallen on August 18th every year for the last 23 years.  For 17 of those years it also happened to fall on the first week of school, often times on the first day.  This year, although I completed years (as they say in Spanish) on the 18th of August again, it did not fall on the first week of school for me.  Instead of getting up on my birthday and going to class, I got up and went to a humble house church on the outskirts of Siguatepeque where I met with souls that were hungry in more ways than one.   I was humbled by the invitation from Junior, my Honduran mason friend, to a party at his house to celebrate mine and his dad's birthdays.  Instead of sharing a meal with my family at home, I shared a meal with my family in Honduras.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to the party at Junior's.  I can tell you, though, that their hospitality was comforting.  I would have taken a picture of the piece of cake I was given, but it'll have to suffice for me to tell you that it was the size of a brick.  It's a good thing I like tres leches cake or else it would have been awfully difficult to stomach something that was no smaller than a shoebox.  I'll also use this time to warn you that the juice that comes out of hot tamales will actually burn you.  I found that out the hard way.  I was given three tamales to take home with me that were fresh out of the oven or stove or boiling water or whatever mean is used to cook tamales.   Despite being a safety hazard, they were delicious.  

At my second birthday party of the day I ate a comforting American meal of grilled chicken, squash casserole, coleslaw, watermelon, and chocolate cake.  It's rough being a missionary sometimes, you know?  A few days later, I was surprised with a birthday banana pudding from some other missionary friends.  If you're wondering why that is noteworthy, allow me to put it this way: instead of having a wedding cake, Laura and I are having a wedding banana pudding.  Needless to say, it was hands down the best banana pudding I've ever had in a third world country.  

Like birthdays tend to be, it wasn't all that different from any other day.  I did, however, enjoy my first birthday in a third world country.  I may not have been with blood on that day, but I was with family.  

Clouds, Pine Needles, and the Sovereignty of God

A few weeks ago, I made the two hour trek to San Pedro Sula to pick up a pair of fellow missionaries from the airport.  Siguatepeque sits on a plateau flanked on either side by mountains, so to leave the city, you have to go downhill.  To go from Siguatepeque, a fairly small city inundated with pine trees, to San Pedro, the sprawling industrial capital of Honduras, you have to go through at least four different terrains, each of which brings along its own climate.  First, as you leave the city you have to wind down a series of steep mountains.  To drive well along this stretch of road you have to be comfortable with the fact that a two lane road is actually a three or four lane road.  I never realized how much I take for granted the fact that in the US everybody on my side of the road was at least going in the same direction.  After the mountains comes the lake region.  This is my favorite part of the drive.  The road rises and falls gently as it hugs the contour of the lake.  Sometimes, you can feel the mist in the air on your left arm that hangs out of the driver's side window.  Some say it rains 13 months a year in this area, some claim 14.  After the lake, there's farmland.  Super flat and you can start to feel the heat.  Finally come the city and the airport.  The first stopights on the trip mean that you can really feel the change that has taken place in temperature.  I've heard it said that the temperature there is like walking through hell with a bucket of gasoline.  I prefer to liken it to Birmingham in mid-July.  Either way, hot.

There's some really amazing views on the drive.  It's rare that you can see both lines of mountains in Siguatepeque with much clarity, but that day  I was driving it was very clear.  I noticed the clouds while I was driving down through the mountains.  Their fluffiness struck me.  "What determines the fluffiness of each cloud?" I thought to myself.  "Does God tune each cloud to its exact degree of desired fluff?"  "Does God care about cloud fluffiness?"  Later as I was driving by the lake and I began to think the same thing about the pine trees.  "Is there a pine needle on a tree that is too long?"  "Does God grow each pine needle on each pine tree to an exact predetermined length?"  "Does God care about pine needle length?"  "If God really is sovereign over all things, can he let clouds determine their own fluffiness and the pine needles their own length?"  After a minute or so of thinking, I answered myself with a resounding "Of course not!"  

God can't let even the details of a cloud or a pine needle slip outside of his control.  If God is God of all and if he is Lord over all things, then he absolutely controls the clouds and the pine needles.  Later in the week, I was having a conversation with a friend about the sovereignty of God.  I mentioned that if God isn't sovereign over all things, if he doesn't control the clouds and the pine needles, then I'm not so sure I want to follow him.  If there was even a single thing in all of the universe that God didn't personally specify, designate, or design, that would mean that there are things that he can't control--something that he is not great enough to reign over.  But if God has enough interest in the clouds and the length of pine needles to determine their exact specifications, then there is no created thing that God's sovereignty, his infinitely perfect rule and control, has not affected.  That ought to have huge implications for my life.  

Be glad that there is not a cloud, a pine needle, a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, a death, a firing, an economic downturn, or a difficult family situation that God is surprised about.  

The clouds and the pine needles don't escape God's reign, so be comforted in the fact that your life doesn't either.