Contentment (noun): finding enough good regardless of one’s circumstances.
Dear friend,
Today, I tasted Israel.
And not in a perfect re-creation of the location but in the bite of some kofta, baklava, and in a warm first sip of the Garden’s Mediterranean coffee.
Closing my eyes during dinner, I slipped away to Nazareth where I had Turkish coffee at Tishreen.
And there I was. Soaring through cherished thoughts without leaving my chair. Or central coast California.
And in the next bite, I was in our bed and breakfast tasting the tabouleh in our bed, where streams of Israel’s sunset casted a sweet orange glow in our room.
With thoughts wandering back to the country I fell in love with.
Israel was where I met with the Lord during sunset hour coffee runs, and in the spicy scents of the Jewish Quarter, and in the the beautiful silence in churches that sat atop old places in the Bible…a silence so overwhelmingly wonderful that one won’t care to stop tears from flowing.
Unbelievable and wholly filled with God, I didn’t want to leave. It was like a part of me I didn’t know existed was finally quenched.
And then 9 months later, we were watching an episode about Israel, which ended with Isaiah 56:6.
And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants…these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer…for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. Isaiah 56: 6-7
I had been missing and wanting the Lord to keep meeting me in places, but He was already there and with me for the entire journey.
He, who brought—active verb— us to his house of prayer, and who prophesied about us foreigners in the Old Testament, was the same God who drives with me to work, helps me during grad school homework nights, and watches shows with me.
He never left me.
Not feeling His presence means He is any less present.
He brought me to the holiest and most magical place on purpose, ordained a day I’d stumble upon the quote from Isaiah, gave me a dinner like the ones I had in his land, and set aside a purpose for the places He sends me.
I want to encourage you, friend, if you are finding it hard to be where you are, don’t forget it’s on purpose. I didn’t get the job in Israel, or find the perfect program to study there because God has an even more wonderful purpose for you in the place He has sent you.
