In the mist

Photo taken by friend/co-worker Ashleigh, overlooking pineapple fields

This morning I went on a breakfast run with a friend--we went for traditional Taiwanese style, which I always love. Taiwanese breakfasts are my favorite, in spite of the high amount of calories and fat that are involved. As I scootered back home from our little adventure, I drove slowly and turned my head to watch the scenery evolve beside me. Things have changed by the side of the road that I hadn't noticed before. A building demolished, a house rebuilt, a new clearing by the fruit field framed by wooden posts, a proud lone tree standing tall in the midst. The dissipating fog from the morning tinged golden as the sun marched to his midday peak. "This place is truly beautiful," the first time I had such a thought with the same scenery I'd driven by for so many months.

One of my goals this year is to blog at least once a week, which may or may not be dangerous given that I may or may not actually feel like blogging at a given time. But I made it a goal because I thought, surely I should be aware enough of the wonder of life around me that there should be something to write about at least every seven days. So I will give it a try.

Since the end of Christmas break the days have gone by slowly, especially as I find myself with less to do. I am always the "do"-ing type...I have a need to feel useful or accomplished in any small shape or form at any given time. God is slowly honing in on me that it isn't always about doing. So in the quiet, by-myself moments, I find that if I listen closely I can hear Him stirring in the recesses of my heart, gently drawing me into His mysterious beauty -- Who are You, God? "Know Me," He whispers.

Part of the Bible study we are going through this week talks about the Mount of Transfiguration. Can you imagine the scene? Knowing somehow as His disciple that Jesus was unlike any other person you'd ever met, but then seeing it with your own eyes as Moses and Elijah themselves came to talk to Him. And what about that cloud? Have you ever thought about God showing up in a cloud? That's like fog, or mist, isn't it. But also it isn't like it, because it wasn't "just a cloud." I like that about God--He's so awesomely terrible yet mysteriously captivating that He surrounds Himself in a bright cloud.

It isn't easy, getting to know God. There are always distractions and often "good intentions" are defeated, beaten-down and deflated. But He is ever so patient. Even when the disciples found themselves in the midst of a bright cloud on, they didn't fully get it either until much later, Who Jesus really was/is. The good news is that it really isn't up to me to try to "do" anything. Anything I know or experience about Him is owed to His goodness and grace.

He is just that, and so much more.