by John Biggs
All these places I’ve been…all the places I’m going…all the places I hope to go, or maybe places I have no plan of going to…whether I think of them as physical locations, mental states, or social or employment situations, there are so many places to choose from, or simply be put in. And sometimes it hits me that no matter where I go or what I do, there’s someone or some thing left behind.
But what if I didn’t think of place as one thing inherently separate from other places? What if I looked past the senses, no matter how beautiful or ugly, and simply saw this place as a day of salvation and an opportunity to glorify God?
Kathmandu-Nepal! A place I’d long wanted to journey to…even before we’d landed I felt I was home.
The plane (yes, we flew) began to descend into the Kathmandu Valley–lined by Himalayan hills. Just beyond the valley to the north lay the high Himalayas–a place enshrined with snow and wonder and, today, clouds. My heart sang as our plane turned low in the valley and in a timeless sweep over the city, a scene revealed itself which remains in my mind’s eye: an entire neighborhood of rooftops lined with prayer flags flapping the most friendly welcome to the stranger arriving from the lowlands.
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