All these things

Maybe it's a liberal interpretation of the verse but I watched Matthew 6:33 happen to my wife today. One of the tough parts about packing to leave for two years are the things that you'd really love to bring but you're not sure you'll ever get to use. And if you can't say, "yes I'm sure I'll use that all the time" then it probably won't make the cut. For Mandy that meant her tennis raquet. Anyone who knows Mandy knows that she loves tennis. She's played and even coached for years now. But when we left we just weren't sure there were any tennis courts in Bethlehem so we left our raquets home. Sure it was tough and I knew Mandy was pretty bummed but what can you do? What sort of missionary refuses to go to the mission field because she can't play tennis? Well don't you know there's tennis courts just up the street at Bethlehem University. We've been trying to find out what the court fees are like but nobody seems to know. It just hasn't worked out. Then the other day I find out that one of my ninth grader's father is the head of the Palestinian Tennis organization! (He also owns an ice cream shop so he's our new favorite person). We paid a visit to his ice cream shop last night (it was good but it was no Sundaes in the Heights). We hadn't even gotten in the door and the guy says to us, "I hear someone here plays tennis." Long story short, even though we had to get up at 7 a.m. on our last day of vacation this morning Mandy got to play tennis, right here in Bethlehem. I couldn't help but think as I watched my wife get back in the groove listened to the familiar sound of the ball popping off her raquet that she gave up tennis for God. God gave it back. "...seek first the Kindom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well."

And for all those Red Sox fans out there, Happy Anniversary. Two years ago today the Red Sox won the World Series.
Good luck Tigers!