Jesus in people.

Tonight, I was sitting on my floor having some quiet time when I paused to look up at my wall. My wall in my dorm room is covered with several pictures of people I have come to dearly love that I met while in Mozambique. I paid close attention to a picture of a man named Pieto. He has has probably had a greater impact on my life than anyone I have ever met before and he can't even speak. Anyhow, that is another story... but here's what I'm getting to.

I realized that every picture of my African friends that are on my wall, I see Jesus in them. I spent time with them. I could see Him working in their lives. Deeply. Richly. Overwhelmingly present in each and every one of them. I realized that this not only applies to those in the pictures on my wall but in every person I came in contact this past summer. In Pieto I saw the joy of the Lord pouring out on every person he smiled at.

Thinking about these things tonight has blessed me. However, it has also caused me to reflect a lot on my current situation. The reason I was able to see Jesus in everyone I met this summer was because I was looking for Him in everything. His Kingdom is here. I want to live joyfully in it everyday. While at school, I have spent so much time thinking about worries, plans, or being discontent with the things in my life. The TRUTH is that the Lord is just as much here in Greeley, Co as He was by the Save River, Mozambique. His KINGDOM is just as present here as it is anywhere else. I want to see Jesus in the people I have in my life here. I want to live in the KINGDOM, not in the world. I want to see Him moving in everything! Because He is!!

Maybe we should stop asking for our eyes to be opened and instead ask them to be shut so that we may open our hearts and follow the joy that is ever so present in all of us. If you don't feel that joy, He's knocking, let Him in.