A Race Well Run

So, my friend Mimi...the one who was in Uganda...well, SHE'S HOME!!!  She, Daughter1 and the Ugandan Two arrived in Bamaham last night....after an original journey of 30 hours, plus the two hour storm delay in Atlanta.  I got to the airport first...not checking online before leaving to read the updates that were being posted about the delays.  I'd been there about thirty minutes when the next in our landing party arrived and then slowly, more and more trickled in.  Many of us had seen each other in passing at school functions and on Facebook, so it was a great chance to meet and visit and learn the different connections to Mimi and her family.

It was like waiting for a baby to be born.  I felt like I needed to be holding someone's hand and encouraging her to take another deep breath and push...and push and push!  Finally, the planes began to land.  Several people got rousing welcome home cheers...us practicing for the big event and just letting off some of the built up excitement.  I heard Mimi's husband call to his new daughter and I heard her...the unmistakable shout of a deaf child and it was JOYOUS!  I couldn't see much from where I was standing...but was crying none the less and I wasn't the only one.  Finally, I caught a glimpse of Miss J's head...her tiny little frame and the smile on her face that was two miles wide!  As much as I wanted to welcome Miss J and Little D home, I REALLY wanted to get my arms around my precious Mimi.  So many of us have prayed and cried and pleaded to God for these children.  So many of us stormed the gates of Heaven on Mimi's behalf.  We felt the desperation and weight in her words that she posted.  To see her...with those beautiful babies and Daughter1, reunited with Daddy and Big Brother...the magnificence of that moment was beyond the scope of my vocabulary!
I'm not a patient person, by nature, but waiting my turn to hug my sweet friend was a pleasure. She was talking with two others when she saw me...and both of us dissolved to tears.  She's shrunk!  Her thirty days in Uganda have had a slimming effect.  I know she was beyond exhausted...on every level and she looked so fragile, but I have NEVER seen her look any more beautiful.  She was radiant.  It was the glow that you get when you walk with God, when you are so close to His side that the brilliance of His glory wraps around you.  Brighter than any Christmas tree and a lot less flammable!  All I could say to her was, "You ran so hard...so hard...you ran so hard!"  And she did!  And it was hard!  But she didn't let the "hard" stop her...she let Jesus take care of the hard and she just kept running, not running for her life, but the lives of Miss J and Little D.  The running stride of a mother...a mama.

It feels like the race is over, but in reality, it's just starting. Maybe it's better to say that the first leg of it is finished...maybe what's behind is what was hardest...but it doesn't really matter, now...because it's behind them.  What's more important is what lies ahead.  Seeing my friends fight and toil with such compassion and conviction tells me that what lies ahead will also be conquered, because it will be surrendered to God and we'll all just stand back and watch the show.

Philippians 3:7-14
 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.   12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

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