I know
I haven’t posted any blogs since being in Vietnam, but I promise this will tie
into the month. Vietnam has been
really exciting, full of hope and full of restoration! So that being said, I want to share a
vision with you:
The sun beats down on my tired, worn out body. I feel the droplet of sweat finally
break and run down the crevice of my back reminding me how much I truly am
longing for a swig of water. My
feet carry me forward following the crowd of strangers. I try to blend in; I try but to no
avail. People are looking at me
and I at them.
My mind is racing; my only thought is, “Where am I?”
My legs ache as if I have been walking for days. I can feel a shift in the air; my
spirit is excited! I can feel a
stirring in my chest, my steps start to regain strength and a breeze brushes
across my face. I breathe in to
know that I am alive and that I am present, my nose reaches toward the sky and
my eyes shut, feeling the rays of light trying to penetrate my eyelids. The smell of jasmine and oil creep into
my nostrils. My weakness has been
replaced by longing. I know what
is happening. I sense it without
even having to see. The tears are
beginning to well up in my eyes and the murmurs drown out as the call cries out
in my mind. I hear the thud as my
legs finally give out to exhaustion and my knees slam into the ground erupting
in a cloud of dirt.
I glance down at the open palms of my hands. They are so dirty. Etched into my wrist I see it,
“doulos.” A single tear lands in
my hand diminishing a small spot of dirt. I am unworthy to be here, I’m not even sure where here is. The conversations slowly start to tune
back in from my left.
“Who is this man?”
“Do you really think he has come to save us?”
“I hear he has superpowers!”
“Others are saying he is possessed by Beezlebub himself!”
The crowd has positioned itself in a huge mob. Kids are placed on the shoulders of
their dads and people are pushing forward and taking shots with elbows to inch
their way to the front.
This can’t be happening.
I take another deep breath, deeper then the first. It feels real! I try to will myself to turn. To only be able to look Him in the eye,
to know that He sees me. I
cannot. I lunge myself forward,
sprawled out upon the ground. My
forehead melts into the dirt and my arms stretch forward reaching out for the
empty void that lies right in front of me. My breathing has slowed, but I can feel the small particles
of dirt moving in and around my lips as my lungs push forward each breath.
I can feel His movement; He is close. I can sense the crowd stirring around
me and yet I still cannot move. The smell grows stronger and my lips begin to mumble off a small prayer,
“Hosanna…”
If you were there you would have looked upon me in embarrassment
and if not you would have been laid out next to me unaware that I was even
there.
I feel the ground resonate in front of me. It’s a footstep but not just any step;
it is the step of freedom, the very distance of limitlessness. The power that exudes from those steps
quakes the ground in front of me. My mind races, if only I can reach out to grab the trailing garment of
the one that I love so dearly.
Everything has slowed down. I lift my forehead out of the dirt; there in front of me He
is walking. The straps of his
sandals are worn out and His feet are covered in the dust that seems to consume
its surroundings. These feet are
not foreign to me. I have seen
them before!
To be
continued…
