my favorite place

With one of my best friends in Ireland over this summer, it's made me reminisce about my favorite place I've found (thus far) here on earth (not to be TOTALLY dramatic or anything ;0). When I was in Ireland for the summer of 2000, two of my friends and I went exploring around Castlerock, the No. Ireland town we were staying it. We stumbled across this hidden "park" right before dusk hit after taking a wrong turn. I won't be able to describe it adequately...you'll just have to go someday ;0)

After walking up a somewhat sketchy, overgrown path, you come upon a huge pasture...with, of course, sheep wandering around. What else would you expect in Ireland? The funniest part was a sheep that seemed to have the "wobbly" part of his vocal chords gone. You know how sheep normally do a sort of rhythmic "Bah-aAaAa"? Well this one had no wobble in his Baa at all. He sounded like a human trying to MAKE a Baa noise. It was just a flat baaaaa-baaaaa. I don't know if that makes sense, but it was hilarious and he wouldn't stop.

Anyhow, the pasture lead to...of course, the ruins of a castle. Also another typical scene in Ireland. But the real find of the night was a fully intact building, literally teetering on the edge of a cliff overlooking the north Antrim coast. It was stunning as the sun set over the water behind it, making us all stand in silence for a few moments before we approached.

I'd never experienced such a magical moment. As my friends kept exploring, I just sat on that stone wall and took in all the beauty. The setting sun over the water and the amazing colors it cast everywhere. The odd mixture of scents in the air, salty coast and sheepy pasture. The cooling dusk air. I think about that place and think that may be as close to heaven as I come before I actually get there. I don't think I'd ever want to go back though because it wouldn't be the same. It may not have been just the beauty that struck me, but the way Christ met me there and we just sat and enjoyed his creation together. If I went back, it may just be another pretty place...but that evening, it was a place where my heart was captured in something much bigger than me and this life. I was able to be still in the purest sense of the word and just rest in beauty.

I think Christ wants us to take time to do that more often. It's hard to "find" those moments though. I actually don't think we ever do FIND those moments, but rather He just surprises us with them every now and then. But I was thankful for that moment and the memory of it. It reminds me that there are more of those moments to come interspersed in the daily grind of life...moments to be still and rest in beauty. Like curling up next to my warm Matthew on a Saturday morning. Or really enjoying the flavors in a thought-over and meticulously prepared meal. Or soon spending hours hours exploring all the little baby parts of Brighton that God knit together in MY body over these past 10 months!? We all want grand, magical moments, but I think they're in ALL of our days...just harder to recoginze when we're rushing around focused on people-pleasing, self-gratifying, approval-sucking. At least that's a typical day in the life of Amy :0) Thank goodness Jesus is up to the task of rescuing us from ourselves and silly pursuits again and again.

Franicis Thompson describes this futile flight from God well in his poem "Hound of Heaven" written in 1893 after dealing with a pretty rough life himself of living on the streets of London, being addicted to opium, and never really "getting his act together" before he died in 1907. If we were honest with ourselves...that's all of us. Our addictions and destitution all look different than each others, but our "act" will never be "gotten together" before we get out of these tainted earthly bodies. I love knowing I'm being pursued daily by the Hound of Heaven. There's no deeper rest than that.