God's Oddities

I hope ya’ll have realized by now that I’m an odd blogger. I say I’m gonna blog about S. Africa but I blog about my thoughts about South Africa. And this is probably going to be another like that.
Anyways.
Here’s a thought I’ve been thinking about and loving more and more; God is odd. Simple, yet dripping in truth. Some people here say that God is a god of order, so the issues of fainting in the Spirit are, essentially, unacceptable. I say this because that’s one of the MANY issues brought up because of African church this last Sunday (that was some crazy Church. I love it.). But the fact remains: God is odd.
One time, Jesus spit into the dirt, made mud, then rubbed it on a blind dude’s eyes so he could see. How does that fit into a god of order’s repertoire? Plus there’s the ever popular platypus discussion and also, the African version of that: the wildebeest. God seemed to make a mistake with the wildebeest. For all ya’ll who haven’t seen em, wildebeest look like small buffalo with a few differences. First, the legs: their legs are probably no bigger than the average small deer, yet they’re still long enough to suit an animal that size. Also, the run: they seem to try to fit in with the African antelope around em and do that kind of jumping gallop thing. So imagine a small buffalo with a funny lookin face and super spindly legs trying to jump-gallop like a deer does. It REALLY doesn’t work. I think they’re gonna break a leg every time they run. It’s SOO weird. Stampeding wildebeests are hilarious. Anyways, so that’s the African version of God’s mistake: the platypus.
I highlight this because of an odd experience tonight. Or rather, the culmination of small experiences that came to a virtual conclusion today.
So as you may have picked up from my blog on darkness (woohoo! Just realized the computer’s pickin up internet in the cabin again. Score.), I foolishly came to Africa without a flashlight. Actually I take that back, I accidentally brought one of those shake flashlights with me that I only half remembered was slightly broken before I even left. So anyways, when walking in the darkness back to the cabin at night, alone as I like to do, I’ve been in complete, or nearly complete, darkness. It’s actually been an interesting experience walking in the dark. I’ve come to love, yet deeply fear the darkness. Walking in Africa is, naturally, different than walking in the states: different animals, different sounds, different feeling. It can be amazingly beautiful walking at night: the stars and moon are ALWAYS beautiful, listening to any birds that might be calling is always fun, and even the silhouettes of animals are beautiful. Although, HEARING a wildebeest or lechwe in the dark where you can’t see is NOT fun. You never know when you might come down the hill and to the clearing and accidentally get in the way of a wildebeest: not fun. Or perhaps even you’ll just end up on the wrong side of the wrong horse: it’s very possible. But still. All together, it makes for interesting experiences in the dark. It’s beautiful yet frightening. I love it, yet sometimes want to avoid it as much as possible.
This in mind, I’ve been working on getting past the scary and just focusing on the beautiful, and it’s taken a while, but I think I’m pretty muchly there. At least as close to “there” as I’ll get. I still stumble down the hill occasionally when I trip on a rock or some loose gravel I can’t actually see. Which brings me to the point of this odd blog: God’s oddity in His blessing.
Tonight, a lady from a group that’s here from a church called the River needed to access her email and the general access computer wasn’t working, and I wasn’t using my computer so, of course I gave it to her for a bit. Long story short, she was feeling quite blessed by all of us interns, especially me apparently because of some simple internet access, and we were talking about our shortcut down through the trees and onto a nearby road to get down and how I’ve been traversing that crazy trek in the dark… and she’s suddenly like, “hey, I think I have two flashlights here, and you’ve blessed me so much today, I’d love to bless you too.” So now I have a flashlight. Not only so, but I overcame my fear of African darkness, found extreme beauty in it, and now can combine it all with safe travel. Plus it’s a sweetly awesome flashlight. It’s one of those super tiny, yet super bright LED flashlights with a million LED’s crammed into a tiny flashlight.
So here’s to God’s odd, AMAZING blessings! I love that God’s not a god of order, but God of EVERYTHING in EVERY way.