Not Here. Please Lord, Not Here...

Something happened this morning that is making me take pause.

I know we live in a wicked world, evil lurking EVERYWHERE, and it is by the grace of God that we are protected.

As I loaded the girls up in the van this afternoon for a jaunt to the grocery store my eyes were drawn across the street where a firetruck sat idle. Dozens of people milled around on the lawns, only a few in uniform, the rest were donned in cargo pants, polo shirts and drop down holsters. An older woman sat on the tailgate of a truck being checked by an EMT. Whatever had happened, had already happened, I saw no tension, no one being carted off in handcuffs. This was the period where adrenalin had calmed and the professionals were getting the job done.

I didn't want to think about what had been going on just across the street, I knew what had happened, but didn't want to know.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Sometimes you just don't want to know how close danger is.

How close evil is.

In my head, spin the "what ifs" and I am thankful, ever so thankful for God's loving protection. Not just for me and my family, but for the neighbor's, the people living in the surrounding condos, even for the drug dealers. Who knows what kind of damage would have been done if their concoction had failed and exploded.

For a brief moment I though we should move but then the truth came to me, no where is truly safe and you really have no idea what your neighbors are up to.

So tonight, I will hold my children a closer and pray.

And pray.

The news link.

A Realization

Next week, we will have been here for four whole months. Four months doesn't seem long in a life of nearly 34 years, but thinking about my last home in Illinois, four months seems a mini lifetime ago.

I had many struggles and trials this summer; trying to make friends, find a church, unpack, and make a house a home. There were days that I felt isolated from the rest of civilization {especially going from the outer 'burbs of Chicago to Mississippi's Gulf Coast}. I'm still trying to get used to the amount of time it takes to get anywhere.

But alas, we have found a church and have started making friends, and what a difference it makes. Having a place to go, something to look forward to, getting a chance to get to know others makes the time go a bit faster.

While I'm still missing my old church and the wonderful friends I made there, I feel I'm finally beginning to move forward, let go of the past and hope for the future.


Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
{I have this passage on a bracelet I wear daily to remind me, it's His plan, not mine}