the new colossus.

"The New Colossus" is a sonnet by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), written in 1883 and, in 1903, engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the Statue of Liberty.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

—Emma Lazarus, 1883

This kept creeping into my thoughts the last few days as I've been a bit homesick for America. Isn't it amazing the foundations that the United States was built upon?? I know, I know... its far from its foundations at times it seems... but still, under the years and years of politics, poor decisions etc etc... this was proclaimed... a call for the broken and lost to find light and be welcomed in. What a beautiful picture. You can't help but see the likeness to our invitation from Jesus...

I love this invitation. I needed it. I accepted it. It changed my life forever.

sobering thoughts.

There is something absolutely sobering about life and death. When it visits your doorstep, or a house very close, the reality of how short life really is comes soaring home.

This past week a good friends little brother passed away, unexpectedly, alarmingly, it was something no one would have seen coming. The shock of it resounded in our house and throughout so many homes around us as we mourned and grieved with our friend and we reminded and all to aware that life is but a vapor. The same evening, a good friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in a hospital not to far away from our home. It struck a chord in me, that this is life, full of joys and sorrows... that we live in a world plagued by the truth that it is not our eternal home. This place, after the fall of man, was never again meant to be a place that we would live forever. I feel somehow renewed knowing that in this sorrow there is also such great rejoicing, as our beautiful friend is in heaven right now rejoicing with the angels:: and whilst we are left here on earth, there is much to be done before we see him again.

So, in these hard days after such a loss, we are mourning with those who mourn... and speaking hope and life::offering love unconditional::and a shoulder to cry on.

As for the other side, the beautiful baby girl that was born, she is such a promise of hope and life just by taking her first breath, that I am still absolutely overwhelmed at her perfection! (and i'm totally gonna go see her tomorrow and have cuddles!!)