peace, I leave with you...

I am writing this post for two reasons: The first is that I want to (I mean, duh! Right?) No, not duh! I’ve found myself running towards this blog every time I am sad, or tired, or generally exasperated with the world. Or when I have a thousand articles to present before my boss tomorrow and I don’t know where to start. Incidentally today is one such day.

I had overcome this feeling of all-encompassing tiredness, because I was sure that finally things were moving in the right direction, and my set of variables was about to be altered. But it seems again as though we’re going back to the beginning. For a little while longer I shall have to contend with this uncertainty. So I feel tired. More in my mind through my body than vice versa. I promise in my head that makes sense.

The second reason I’m writing is that I gave Mukiri the link to this blog last night, and I don’t want the last two unhappy posts to be the ones she sees first. She’s a luminescent ball of optimism in my life, still sounding gracious even when she’s bone tired. She’s also a brilliant writer, her blog is here.

I was trolling through Facebook while trying to convince myself to get started with the working, rather than blogging, when I saw her glowing tribute to our Flo, the one I have to thank for my friendship with Muki and Dinah and a bunch of other girls who mean a lot to me. And I finally found the photo I’ve been hoping someone would put up so you can finally attach a face to this Flo I’m piping about every two seconds.

I’m sharing Mukiri’s sentiments through this screenshot, because she so aptly describes it for us. I was the youngest at her wedding party meaning I wasn't quite close to the older girls,  I got a lot closer to Dinah and by some magical design Muki herself. By the time I got to campus Ng’eno and Mary were done. Flo was in the middle of us, so she was a lot closer to the older girls. I knew her from interaction with this fourth former Joy Mwende who had made a prayer group out of us. So when I got to campus, and behold a familiar face, I clung to Flo. And her arms were always wide open.

They are laying her body to rest tomorrow. Such finality. Today, I’m praying for my friends Muki and Ng’eno and Mary and Dee, for whom she was more like a sister. And who shared the bulk of Flo’s final journey. For them I pray comfort and peace, true peace. It is our Lord who heals, and it is our Lord who restores. He will do in perfect time too.

I recall the words of Cornelia Ten Boom, the lady whose family sheltered Jews during the Holocaust and got caught. They were taken to the same concentration camps preserved for the Jews, and there she watched her father slowly suffer to death. Later on, a soldier who was particularly cruel within the camp came to ask for her forgiveness, and this is when she confessed:

Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him....Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness....And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself.” 
― Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

He makes all things beautiful in His time. So simple, but so true. It is well…. It is well…