Perspectives

Through the grasses

Another shot of my little Maddie just as I predicted. I feel so blessed by the cousins I have both younger and older. I had never really thought about the bonds that I have with each one of them. Maddie and I have ever since she was 5 months old and I met her for the first time have had a special bond. I still remember the first time that I saw her. I was sitting in the dinning room of my aunt and uncles' house in West Chicago the morning after my sister, my cousin and I had arrived. The night before Emily, Jake and Maddie had been asleep by the time we got to the house so our anticipation to meet our new twin cousins and to see our 4 year old cousin again had to wait until the following morning. I had woken up early in the morning after being just slightly jetlagged. I had gotten something to eat and was sitting at the table talking to my uncle while my aunt had gone running. We heard one of the twins crying and he got up to get the baby. I was VERY excited to finally get to see one of my new cousins. When my uncle walked back into the dinning room he had in his arms my baby cousin Madeleine who was wearing a soft, green pajama set. She still didn't really have hair just dark baby fuzz. I was so happy to see her, to hold her, to see her big blue eyes, touch her little round nose, and kiss her fat cheeks. Since then Maddie and I have had our little bond. I don't even think she realizes it... Every time we see each other she has to warm up to me again but with given time she's my buddy again. Last weekend in Lexington we cuddled on the porch after dinner and she told me from her expert 4 year old perspective about her new house. The next morning we sat on the deck of the house on the big swing together, I with my coffee and she with her baby doll. We just sat and swung back and forth occasionally venturing a comment or two. And the last post as well as this are proof of our fun little shoot the last night we were together. I love this little one so much. I wouldn't say I love her more than her twin brother or her older sister it's just that we have that unexplainable bond that draws me to her every time we're together.

Today I talked to one of my best friends on the phone for the first time in a few months. She lives in London and I haven't seen her in a whole year. I miss her so much especially during this time. We talk about everything together from clothes to boys, from music to our savior Jesus. Today one of our topics was heaven and what we each thought it would be like. We both said how we would be able to be with each other whenever we wanted and not have thousands of miles separating us. Nishma then ventured the question "Do you think there will be email in heaven?" To which of course we both laughed. I told her how I like to think heaven will be like C.S. Lewis' description of the "New Earth" at the end of the Last Battle. For all of the Chronicles of Narnia the "real" world and Narnia had been separated a person was either in the real world, or they were in Narnia and there was no being in both places at once and while you were in one of the places there was no telling how time was passing at the other. When the old Narnia was destroyed and the characters went "Further up and further in" to the new Narnia they see that the two worlds are no longer completely separate. The characters can stand on a hill in Narnia and see their parent's house in England with their mum and dad waving to them smiling. I'd like to think of heaven like that. I can stand on a hill and see Nishma standing at her house in Harrow, I can see Ben riding his piki around the valleys of Kenya, I can see Maddie running around her back yard in Kansas, and nothing separates me from them anymore. 

iTunes: Kindness/Give Us Clean Hands by Passion Worship Band