My Heart

I awoke this morning before the sun. Couldn’t sleep. Too much to think about. When I lay my head on my pillow tonight, everything has to be packed for our 7-week trip and the house cleaned and ready for our friends who will be staying here while we’re gone.

I grabbed my throw blanket and went out on the porch just as the light was peeking through the clouds. The morning was crisp and cool, such a refreshing respite from the heat wave this last week.  As one of our friends here says, the birds were “tweeting” and singing.   I could just barely see the mountains on the other side of the Jordan River.  Moses surveyed the promised land from the mountains that I look at every morning. John the Baptist hung out in the wilderness just before those mountains. Jeremiah probably climbed these hills closest to me. The view from my porch never gets old.  This morning was especially poignant, because after tomorrow I won’t see this sight again for seven whole weeks. Jerusalem has stolen my heart. If heart is where the home is, then I am home. I know I won’t always be here. Abba has so many things planned for our family. There are rivers to cross and battles to win. There are pockets of darkness in the earth that need the kingdom of God declared and spoken forth over them. But for right now I am relishing the fact that God has graced me to live in the city that He loves.  And I will miss her immensely.

“I am extremely jealous for Zion;  I am jealous for her with great wrath.” Zech. 8:3

“You who make mention of the Lord, do not give Him rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem the praise of the earth.” Isa. 62:6-7