wrote this and put it on instagram, but wanted to share it with you too.

I remember when I was little, I was so in awe of planes. Growing up on NW 10th street, just a mile or so from the airport, I saw them fly overhead all day long. Everything about them was a source of mystery for me. I was curious about where they were going and the lives of those who were on them.

This afternoon, I was laying in the backyard looking up at the sky, still living only miles from the Lincoln airport, watching the airplanes fly overhead. Of course, wondering where they were going and about the lives of those above me. In that moment, I asked my younger self “if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?” I’m sure I’d say Montana, as it’s the only other place I really knew. A beautiful and sacred place, I might add. As I’m sure it’s a source of my wonder. All those summer road trips watching the landscape change.

I hadn’t ever flown on a plane until I was seventeen, when I was leaving to get ready to experience other corners of the world. I remember feeling deep awe throughout my body as we left and the earth grew further and further away. I thought “I can’t believe this is what it really looks like up here.” I fell in love with seeing corners of the world I never thought possible when I was just seven. I fell in love with meeting people I didn’t even know existed.

My feet have walked on the red clay dirt of Georgia. I’ve climbed up rocks in Ecuador. My eyes have looked into those of people that reside in a part of India that I didn’t even know existed until our plane landed in Guwahati. I said, “I’m sorry, where are we?” I’ve watched the sunrise from the top of a water tower deep in the bush of Zambia. I’ve heard stories from women in Guatemalan villages hidden in the mountains. I’ve experienced friends’ childhood homes across the country. This land locked Nebraska gal has swam in oceans on a few different coasts. I get to sit around a table and share a meal with friends and family at home. I’ve even exceeded my dream of flying on a plane, to actually flying one during sunrise in North Carolina, while my pilot friend flew her OWN plane beside us. What I’ve done in my life, I could’ve never dreamt up myself. I felt my younger self’s pride come over me, I felt her wonder, her peace, and her deep confidence that all is truly good and whole in the world.

All this to say, explore your source of wonder, it will lead you to even more. It’ll take you on a journey back to yourself, and to the One who thought you up before any of this even existed. The longing inside you is there for a reason, don’t resist it.

On Earth as it is in Heaven

lyss