For the First Time







  

 



I peered into other compound units to take pictures and met some friendly neighbours
from both Cape Breton and (I think) Europe.
Isn't the bougainvillea (seen here on the left) enchanting?
My dream is to find a yellow variety, as well as jasmine and aloe.





In full sun, our laundry takes about 30 minutes to dry. How fabulous! Perhaps our pure solar power use makes up for all the energy-heavy water desalination processing that we cause...


We also put in the start of a back patio vegetable garden: carrots, beans, beets, lettuce and cucumbers.
We hope to add tomatoes, a few potted trees (?), herbs, and of course a trellis for our expected beans. If my non-GMO seeds pass through the mail, we also hope to make room for heirloom squash, watermelon and canteloupe. The real test of plant affection will be whether we can make our desert climate a temporary "Mediterranean" one through botany-minded watering and my most enthusing personal project:
soil amendment via Qatari composting!

Today was another bright and beautiful day in Doha: As you can see, I did a bit of camera work around the compound as we began our plan of attack on the house gardens. I also wore baby vomit to a get-together at the (stunning) College where my sister and her husband work... [Larissa calls it a mother's outfit or something. I'm not so sure how I feel about all this vomit business. At the very least, I'm putting a cease-fire on dance parties for Caleb and I for the for-seeable future.] Another observation that was interesting to me was Caleb's fascination with windows. He enjoys looking out at them, and so do I. Smooth Arabic architecture is a lovely relief against the sandy 5:30pm sunset. I'm fairly confident that he could be engaged this way for nearly half an hour if the timing was right. I tried sneaking in a bit of journal-reading while I held him at the window but he became too engrossed with my papers. In lieu of telling my professors that "My nephew ate my homework", I am taking Caleb's new hobby as a nice time to pray for all the friends that I usually try (fairly unsuccessfully, when I am operating on Eastern Standard Time) to fit in at bedtime. What a blessing.

Earlier today the Lord reminded me of a main speaker at Campus for Christ's Eastern 2007 Winter Conference (I've searched around for the accurate title of the speaker that year, and want to say that it was Steve Mitchell but the dates don't add up). In any case, the speaker at that conference was one of the most focused, respectable men I have ever heard. He taught the crowd like a father, sharing deeply from his heart (and without ridiculous End Times cafflufle) of the burden he felt to help us understand the Biblical book of Revelation. He was clear and methodical in his move through the text; he seemed to understand the broader context of the whole Bible, and Revelation's words made quiet sense to me for perhaps the first time. Then, near the end of the conference the speaker shared a video of his son who was killed in modern day conflict in Iraq or Afghanistan earlier that year. I was stunned by it all. 

It was all these memories that brought me in reflection to Revelation 22 this evening.  Its images almost bring me to tears: a tree with leaves that are for the healing of the nations, the welcome that 'the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost' may do so, and Christ's claim to be the 'Bright Morning Star (BrightMS)'. While I have heard BrightMS as a reference in music before, and have asked a few people about it, I never felt satisfied with referring lovingly to Jesus by a term that few people could give me clear reason for. [Revelation is such a large and complex text, but I see now that it is where I should have started in my search for understanding the reference]. It could be said that Christ revealing Himself as the Bright Morning Star in chapter 22, verse 16 means that Christ claims to be the precursor of the new day. He ushers in an entirely new life. To me, Christ was the first piece of sunlight in the fading night of my life - When I trusted Him for the forgiveness of my sin, the guilt inside me disappeared. It literally felt as though everything inside me changed. And so I am more than happy to sing love songs to my Savior reminding us both of His piercing position in my heart. In the context of Revelation, Christ's claim to be the BrightMS may also be reasonably applied to the understanding that He will usher in a yet-to-happen world that is brand new and beautiful.

Here are a couple other verses (Rev. 22:16-17) that I can hardly take the time to reflect on now:
"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

Until next time, when I promise to include a few pictures of my adorable nephew,
L