Unusual Creatures of Unremarkable Colour

"Is this not the kind of fast I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the captives free

and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wandered with shelter --

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

Isaiah 58:6-7

I've been sorting through the literally thousands of pictures I've got on file representing 18 years of visits to Thailand.  

I'm not sure if this is to help ease my longing or if it's making it worse.

Probably a bit of both.

Mostly the pictures are of children.  Or flowers.  Or outings we've taken together.  Or food.  And oh, the sunrises and sunsets, yes.

But I also came across these three shots, and they caught my attention.  Because even though, unlike the flowers and the sunsets or so many other vibrant things to take a picture of in Thailand, none of these critters are particularly colourful, yet they still fascinate me.  Two are moths of some sort, and the other a toad.  I welcome those with more knowledge than me to educate us on proper names or species.

For now I'm finding it rather striking that they all look like they might have been painted with the same brush by the same artist on a day when there wasn't much going on in the pallet or the imagination.  

And yet I noticed.  Took their picture.

Each unique, and remarkable in their particularly unremarkable way.

Of late I've had the opportunity again to evaluate some of the basic assumptions of life and ministry.  

At New Family Foundation, we are at a pivotal point in our story, just on the edge of actually breaking ground for the new build (exciting and terrifying at the same time).  

At Highview, we are in a season of recalibration and resetting for future ministry as well (full of potential with the usual uncertainty thrown in).  

Personally, for our family, there is something on the horizon that will feel like a big difference for us (not bad per se, but a little painful).

However each of these unfolds, in all three aspects, there is the opportunity to clarify and reclaim important values.  And I welcome that.

And a value that has settled even more deeply inside of me as a result of this, is the value that is apparent in the stopping to take a picture of an unremarkable thing.  

The small and the ordinary have God's complete attention.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

Yet not one of them will fall to the ground

outside your Father's care."

Matthew 10:29

I will confess to feeling the pressure of comparison when other ministry leaders announce the impressive statics of their latest ventures.  How many Bibles distributed, how many baptisms, how many people deciding to become Christians, how many in attendance at their event.  And I celebrate with them, for sure.

And...there is something remarkable in a persistent persistence of doing Isaiah 58 in the ordinary ways of every day.  There is something unique about every child who comes into our care, no matter what they've been told thus far.  And there is something wildly colourful in the subtle, intentional pallet of the Creator who fashioned them just as they are, because He thought they were a very good idea indeed.

"For You created my inmost being;

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise You because

I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Your works are wonderful."

Psalm 139:13-14

How amazing that He notices us!

And it doesn't need to be big, and it doesn't need to be flashy, when we notice them with Him.

It just needs to be real.

I need this for me.

I need this for them.

As always, thank you to all who notice them with Him together with all of us at New Family Foundation.

Rev. Ruth Anne Breithaupt, MDiv.

Canadian Representative/Missionary in Residence

New Family Foundation/Highview Community Church

The mission of New Family Foundation is to

provide a loving home for at-risk and 

orphaned children in Northern Thailand to

help them achieve their best potential in 

education, vocation and service to society.

New Family Foundation

                                            

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