Fourth Scarf Sisters Reunion
Canandaigua, NY
October 9-13, 2013
This post is the fourth and last entry for my Traveling Socks adventure.
It has been an awesome journey really. To think that my beautiful feet have traveled a long way to be with you dear Scarf Sisters is a dream that has become a reality...
Actually, it doesn't even come as a surprise to me. I am a firm believer in God dreams that do come true. God gives us dreams and then loves to surprise us by making them come true.
Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. - Psalm 37:4
When the month of October ends, I will have been here two months already.
Truth is that, as much as I have been enjoying my experience here with family and friends, I am really ready to go back to my own homeland. These past days, I have sometimes felt a tinge of homesickness inside of me.
America is very beautiful. Where I come from, there is a different kind of beauty. Go up to the mountains, or go down to the coastal regions... there is beauty there, too. Sugarcane fields, rice growing on terraces on the mountainsides... pineapple and banana plantations... mango orchards... rolling hills... crystal clear waters showing tropical fish and incredibly beautiful corals... white sand beaches.
But I live in the city - so it's quite different. Traffic, congested roads, trains that are literally packed with humanity, pollution, noise, heat... and so much more than most people in the West could ever imagine.
A lot of people cannot stand it. However, I have a different way of looking at it. There's so much beauty to be seen in the metropolis as well.
More than anything else, I guess what makes it beautiful in my eyes is the fact that it is home to me.
There really is no place like home.
And each one of us is in a journey back to our heart's true home...
That is why I really appreciate the Traveling Socks adventure that we Scarf Sisters have been in this past year. It speaks so much of the journey that we are on... it is a journey to discover more of who we are... and more of who God our Father is.
The journey is meant to refine us, equip us, cleanse us, transform us, make us truly enjoy heaven when we finally get there.
The circumstances of our lives have been orchestrated, tailor-made by Abba Father, for that ultimate purpose.
When we reach heaven, we will have been purified, and made beautiful by all the difficult circumstances of our lives that we have weathered and overcome.
During the reunion, what I have enjoyed the most was when we would gather around the table, or the living room, and we would just be telling our stories to one another. I loved how there would be listening ears... and caring hearts... and how often the perspective as we shared our hearts would be the perspective of heaven. That there may be trials, but God is always in the picture.
We were ten women with different personalities and background. But there was so much harmony and unity during the five days we lived together. There were crying times... but there were laughing times too. We cooked together, cleaned up the kitchen together...
On the night we arrived at the rental house, I was surprised to go back to my room and find out that someone had already prepared my bed for me... thanks to Rachel and Cyndi who went around making the beds - so we called them "The Bedmakers."
We took turns preparing the delicious meals.
There was a willingness to help and serve one another.
There was a decision in everyone's heart to submit to one another.
There was kindness.
Everybody was considerate of one another.
There was honor in the relationships.
As I already mentioned it before, it was my first time to meet all the sisters who were at the reunion... but never for a single moment did I feel that I was among strangers.
It was really such a beautiful experience for me.
I believe that heaven is going to be such a place - a place where there is harmony, unity, consideration, understanding, love.
Honor.
It is not so common anymore here on earth.
But Heaven is a place where honor is what defines our relationships...
In heaven, honor is the language we speak and the air we breathe.
On the morning that Betty, Rachel and Cyndi were going back to Canada, we gathered at the parking area to partake of Holy Communion.
We gathered in a circle while the bread (crackers) and the wine (grape juice) were being passed around.
It was another solemn moment for us all. Once again, I felt the presence of the Lord in our midst, as we ate the bread, and drank the cup...
For each time we partake of Holy Communion, we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
And healing comes to us as we take Holy Communion in a worthy manner, discerning the true meaning of what Christ did on the Cross.
How beautiful, how beautiful... is the body of Christ.
I have posted below the lyrics of one of my favorite songs, How Beautiful, by Twila Paris.
Every line in this song is so meaningful, but this one stands out for me:
And as He laid down His life
We offer this sacrifice
That we will live just as He died
Willing to pay the price
That we will live... just as He died...
The Cross life. How beautiful it is indeed when humble hearts give!
Every line in this song is so meaningful, but this one stands out for me:
And as He laid down His life
We offer this sacrifice
That we will live just as He died
Willing to pay the price
That we will live... just as He died...
The Cross life. How beautiful it is indeed when humble hearts give!
I believe it is a fitting song to remind us all of the beautiful journey that we are in... a journey back to the heart of our Father!
How Beautiful
(Twila Paris)
How beautiful the hands that serve
The wine and the bread and the sons of the earth
How beautiful the feet that walked
The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross
How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
How beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sin and bore it instead
How beautiful the tender eyes
That chose to forgive and never despise
And as He laid down His life
We offer this sacrifice
That we will live just as He died
Willing to pay the price
How beautiful the radiant bride
Who waits for her groom with His light in her eyes
How beautiful when humble hearts give
The fruit of pure lives so that others may live
How beautiful the feet that bring
The sound of good news and the love of the King
How beautiful the hands that serve
The wine and the bread and the sons of the earth
