Untamed

Elephants are really quiet.  It's quite funny considering they are one of the largest  mammals on earth, and they don't exactly tip toe around.  Africa's wildlife has found a secret door in my heart and swung it wide open (it's also given me pause to consider choosing the life of a vegetarian).  Sitting on the edge of my tall seat in the very back of our safari jeep armed with my zoom lens camera I enter the  untamed.  We round a bend and catch the sables and impala grazing on the edge of the Zambezi River (Zambezi means River of God), carefully lowering their heads for a cool drink of water.  Baboon mothers scavenge for food on the beach with their babies clinging onto their under bellies with all four legs.  We explore a little deeper and come to a roadblock but none like I have ever experienced before.  Ahead of us are three towering giraffes, their stretched necks reach for the leaves at the top of the trees as they gracefully nibble at the foliage.  We begin again only to stop suddenly as elephants emerge in formation out of the bush, the adults take up the front and rear protecting the young from predators.  I can hardly breath as the shutter on my camera opens and closes capturing the majesty of these regal giants.  Then it happens.  Worship bursts out of my heart so much that my chest can hardly contain it.  It was silent yet my soul was singing one of the loudest songs I have ever experienced.  This is His creation declaring the glory of the Lord and I get to join in and worship!  Just think, God gets to take in this wild landscape filled with enchanting creatures every minute of every day. 

Amsterdam

I didn't have much expectation for Amsterdam.  The only real thing I knew of the city before we came was the reputation of the red light district.  I am quickly falling in love with it here.  There are over 40 canals winding throughout the city center lined with tall narrow brick buildings full of character.  Beneath the stately old buildings are cafes, sandwich shops and underground pubs and crepe bakeries.  The streets are congested with bicycles and mopeds, not very many cars, most everyone rides.  The city is teaming with life from the ancient museums to the floating flower market and the upscale shopping streets.  We only have a 22hr layover here on our way to Africa but there is so much more to be explored!

We made our way through the city center and crossed a bridge into the red light district, we intentionally visited this famed area in the middle of the day.  From first glance it looked just as sweet and quaint as the other parts of the city.  I guess I thought it would look dark and shameful.  It didn't.  The streets were filled with families with children and tourists.  It felt almost too okay.  It wasn't until we looked closely at the storefronts that we saw the reputation was in fact accurate.  There were weed shops, sex toy souvenir shops and 'live porn' stores.  What really caught my attention were the buildings that didn't have a neon sign or pornography in the windows.  These shops looked like mini window displays and had floor to ceiling windows with a chair or a bed and a sink or shower head.  The displays were anywhere from 4 feet by 4 feet to 10x10 and had a full length glass front door giving entrance to the closet sized display.  Each housed a woman wearing as close to nothing as possible, posing, coercing, seducing or sitting on the chair taking a break on her iPhone waiting for her next customer.  One girl we passed looked different from the others.  I wondered what her story was as she stood closer to the window than the rest and impatiently tapped her foot which made her whole body shake.  As I passed, we made eye contact for what felt like a full minute.  What was she thinking, how did she get there, did she want out?  I had this fleeting thought of wanting her to be free and wondering if she wanted my life.  We could only walk those streets in the red light for a few minutes, besides averting our eyes at every corner our hearts began to feel heavy.  Chris leaned over and whispered a song in my ear, 'Your the God of this City...'.  We began singing it under our breath as the naked women and sex toys fell into the distance.

Amsterdam has surprised me.  I thought it would be full of sex and nudity but it's not.  It's full of life and culture and beauty.  So then I thought for sure if it was all crammed into one corner of the city it would feel dark, heavy and repulsive but it's not.  As I sit here on my bed in our quaint little hotel room on the other side of town and process all that we saw, my heart hurts.  It hurts for the women in the windows.  For the men who visit them.  For the darkness that is disguised in light.  It is peculiar how sex, prostitution, and pornography have made their way into mainstream culture.  It's no big deal.  Kids can walk with their parents through the sex exploited streets of the red light district without second thought.  I find that I am not turned off by the 'sin' but rather by the way it is disguised.

Jesus
You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

Would you reveal yourself to the restless girl in the window who locked eyes with me.  Let her taste your hope and peace and never be satisfied with anything else again.  Make a way for her to find you.