Missing Home

I had one of those inexplicable waves of homesickness today.  I was watching West Wing on DVD and I it was a rainy fall night.  I think it was the fallen leaves that got me.  It was beautiful.  Of all the things I miss here in Thailand I miss fall.  I can't remember the last time I saw the fall - maybe 5 years now?  or possibly more.  We had a nice rainy day ourselves.  One of those rare days where it rains all day and then is cool all day.  Not a little shower and then opressively hot and humid the rest of the day. I know I shouldn't miss such things, that they aren't important but sometimes they are.  I miss the fall and coffee shops and Barnes and Noble and true old fashioned thunderstorms, sweaters and jeans, clean streets that when they are wet don't just turn to mud, I miss dogs that aren't so afraid of you they won't let you pet them because they have been horribly abused, I miss my mom and speaking English and the mall and birthday cake oh and cookies too with icing on them.  But I had little blessings today, the rain like I mentioned and a little kitten let me pick her up and hold her and feed her some meat and she purred and the bush on the corner that is blooming again and smells so good..  My little girl Dena is finally well and looks smiley and happy again,  My kids are beautiful and I read a story in the New York Times about a girl from Uganda who graduated College this spring who got to go all because some aid organization from Arkansas gave her family a goat when she was a little girl and the money from the goats milk sent her to school where she won scholarships and finally graduated college in the US.  Moral of the story - a little investment can bring so much return when it is investment in human lives.  People have such great potential.  And I was thinking today about Jesus and how He believes in us and He bets on us all the time.  When He died it looked like everyone had left Him and the greatest gamble of all time had failed  but it didn't.  He has faith in us.  Why I don't know.  He knows how unfaithful we are most of the time.  But He takes those times when we are not and does so much with it.  He believes in us. I have to trust God with all the things inside me that I can't have right now,  I know He will pay me back in His way in unexpected surprises.  He cares that I love the fall, as unreasonable as it seems, He cares. He remembers and He rewards those who give up the Fall for Him.