Breaking 1,000

Wow! Last night I checked and it was 998 visits... now we're at 1,014! Since May, and no spam email to tell everybody about the site, that's not bad at all.

Pretty cool. I'm sure it doesn't hurt to have pictures of my nephew on there... it's my latest gimmick to up readership. ;-)

A friend wrote last week, "I write because I was made to write." I feel the same way. It's like Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, in that oft-quoted statement of great theology: "God made me for China. But He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure."

(Would you believe that my mom met the daughter of a missionary who was with Liddell in a prisoner camp in China... and Liddell died in his arms. Sad, but what a small world. And now you know that Liddell really did go and give his life for the Lord in China.)

Anyway, God made us all for something... for many things. He made us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, as the Westminster Catechism says. And to glorify Him, He gave us hearts and minds and gifts and talents. For me, one of them is writing. But it's no fun unless somebody reads it. That's why I have that great opening quote by Henri Nouwen (thank you Linda McCrary!)... the word makes our experience truly human, validates that something happened, that it matters, that it somehow changes the world's landscape. We need to be witnesses of what God is doing around us.

At the Yellow Couch's prompting, I've been thinking a lot about why people are driven to create art, to write, to make things better than they are. What is it about God that we're reflecting?

I'm going to be adding to this post for a while, but here's a little of what I think so far.

1. We create because God is the Creator - and we're made in His image.

2. We want to make things better than they are because we want them to be seen in the best possible way, as we can see them in our mind's eye. So, in that case, it's not wrong to do a little photo-shop on a photo.

3. That desire also reflects God. He sees us not as sinful disastrous people who blow it every day, but as redeemed, perfected holy children of His, with no distractions to the beautiful picture we make in His eyes. He sees us as we will be, and what a wonderful thing that is.

4. We can go on creating and redeeming all our lives without limit, because God has no limits, and He loves redeeming the world.

5. However, in deeply personal relationships, there has to be a limit, because we don't share His omnipresence. We get to focus on a few relationships, not on every single person in the world, even though we can have a God-given love for anyone and everyone.

Thanks very much to all of you readers who email me and leave comments... and thank you mysterious lurkers... one of these days though, do me a favor and stand up to be counted somehow. It's nice to know you're out there.

Happy reading....

Christine