almost narnia...

today, something awakened in me that has been dormant and stifled for many years. i have always loved nature, and growing things. my house used to always be full of plants and flowers. since living in the tropics, i have not had opportunity to garden at all...either too busy or living in highrise apartments where it was difficult to grow anything. 

 since we moved this week to "the province" (countryside), i've been reveling in the green. such a lovely color...green...soft and inviting and alive...i had forgotten what it feels like to be surrounded by a living, vibrant cloak of trees and vines and fields. i took the kids over to the park across the street- not a city park, but a country park, neatly landscaped to be sure but uncluttered and bright and spacious. i sat on a white bench watching the children ride bikes and shout and run through the grass and laugh and dance and sing and chase the dogs- oh, the dogs are so happy- and suddenly i was weeping. weeping for the sheer joy of the wind, the sky, the flowers, the happy children, the happy dogs. weeping because i've spent so many years missing it. not grieving, because i was where God wanted me to be, but just so unbelievably delighted to have tiny yellow flowers at my feet and a wide joyful glorious space for the kids to run and play. 

 and as i sat there with tears in my eyes, i noticed the final touch of grace: lamp posts. i walked the children around to touch the lamp posts, we whispered solemnly about Aslan the great King of Narnia, and how this was a sort of Narnia for us...a magical place where wonderful things could happen and the world could be almost how it should be. for a few moments, i was almost there- that place we long for and can never really get to- the call of the Lord High King echoing within our hearts that there is more, that He has created all of this for us, and He will come back some day to change everything back to how it should be. Almost Narnia. Almost home.