Author Archives: Chayli

• 4 Comments

•

I wonder how big God's smile was when He decided to create friends.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I wonder if we realize how empty the world would be without them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

There would be no glancing at someone across the room and bursting into laughter at an inside joke. . .
. . . no mad dashes through Target in the middle of the night looking for a certain kind of candy
. . . no sitting out in the yard in pjs till all hours of the night, whispering in the rain and trying to laugh uproariously without waking up the entire neighborhood
. . . no bursting into the same song at the same time
. . . no long discussions about things that matter
. . . no wandering through K-Mart with tears streaming down your cheeks
. . . no tense rook games that last till three in the morning ...continue reading →

•

From dark to light the Voice speaks life,
And worlds and souls take wing.
From heav'n the guardians look down;
A little angel sings.

From light to dark men's hearts soon turn,
A selfish path they keep.
And as he sees their fall begin,
The little angel weeps.

Years upon years, with sorrow vast,
What evil mortals sow.
But of the love that waits for them
The little angel knows. ...continue reading →

• 3 Comments

•

I wonder sometimes why life is the way it is, why seemingly every moment is tinged with something that doesn’t belong. There are no moments of pure happiness nor of pure sorrow. Laughter is etched with tears, and pain is softened by joy. Why does everything in life taste so bittersweet?

Then I think of how it’d be to be purely happy. No worry, no pain, no tears. Just overwhelming happiness. And I realize that these mortal bodies and these frail minds likely couldn’t even handle that kind of joy. Nor could they bear such uninhibited anguish. Without a smile or a beam of light to soothe sorrow, we would break irrevocably.

We are so weak and fragile, not because God made a mistake when He designed us but because He wants us to have to rely on Him. There is no sorrow that can overwhelm us if we walk with our hand in the Father’s, nor will He allow unadulterated joy to destroy us. He tempers delight with despair, and vice versa, for our own good.

And that, to me, is beautiful. The ache behind the smiles reminds me that He is good, and the ray of light in every dark place tells me again how incredibly much He loves me. ...continue reading →

• 1 Comment

•

Most people don’t get to live extraordinary lives, at least not the way we tend to think of extraordinary. We look at our jobs and our homes and our friends, and it is all so ordinary. There’s nothing that sets us apart from anyone else, not like those missionaries in Africa witnessing to unreached tribes or that neighbor down the street who always seems to have the best the world can offer. The divide between us and them looks insurmountable sometimes, and perhaps it is.

But the gap between ordinary and extraordinary, on the other hand. . . that’s actually very small, small enough to be bridged by one little word.

Wonder.

Yes, wonder. Remember when you were an Indian on the warpath and the white men you captured wouldn’t cooperate as real captives should? Remember all those tea parties with little princess friends and sometimes even the queen of England? Remember turning stumps to bears and embroidery frames to halos? We all knew what it was to wonder once. The world was real, and it was alive, and we played a very big part in what that world became. But the older we get, the harder it is to hold onto that sense of wonder we had as children. So often, “real” life gets in the way. We can’t just imagine anymore. We have work to do, school to attend, families to feed.

We’re too busy to wonder. It doesn’t happen naturally anymore, not like when we were young. So make wonder a choice. ...continue reading →