This is post 1 of 10 in the Broken:Beautiful series.
James and I live this interesting life that straddles the worlds of America and Africa. We actually met because of our common callings to Africa, in fact, on an airplane that we both happened to be taking to Kenya. We got to know each other as we sat together for nearly 6 hours, flying from Europe, over the Sahara desert of North Africa, and ending our conversation in Nairobi, Kenya. Unbeknownst to us, we would be married within the year and eventually, our marriage would include the stewardship of two separate organizations specializing in healthcare and community development in Africa.
Over the last five years, we have journeyed together as partners in mission, and have experienced the undulating ups and downs of living life in the middle lane, shifting from one continent to another. In it, we have seen unbearable brokenness juxtaposed with overwhelming beauty. It is the witness to a world that is not yet right, and the longing for the one that is promised to come. It is why I have named my blog Broken:Beautiful because they often come together, brokenness and beauty. That is the lens through which I see the world.
I have asked James to join me as a guest blogger for a series I am calling Broken:Beautiful. We will post one every week for the next month or so. It all stems from the words of Isaiah below as well as the compilation of our shared stories. Join us as we honestly delve into the broken and the beautiful parts of the world we know and love.
Isaiah 65: 17-25
“See, I will create a new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.
“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.