Friend Visits

I've had a couple of fun weekends visiting friends and friends visiting me.
Two weeks ago I met up with my hilarious friend, Anteneh, from Ethiopia. He's spending 2 weeks in the US to see family and friends. We headed to Little Ethiopia in LA to eat "koors" together.

After that, I caught a bus to Santa Monica to meet Christie, my former (not old!) college roommate who's been at Pepperdine U in Malibu with her husband for the last 3 years while he went to Law School. He's graduating this weekend and they're heading back to Delaware. It was nice to have a friend nearby for a couple months, but too bad it wasn't longer.
We went on a hike way up into the mountains behind Pepperdine's campus. Incredible view on an almost clear day.


That evening we went on a bit of a scavenger hunt of sorts. There are these little fish called "grunion" and during certain parts of the year during the full moon, these fish come up on the beach to spawn. Christie and I wanted to check them out. They don't generally appear until after high tide, which was around 9:45pm. So we went out around 10:30 and checked out about 3 different beaches over the next 3 hours...nothing. Except...we were standing on a cliff looking into the water and I got a little over-eager and thought I saw something moving in the water. I told Christie I thought I saw one, so we both bolted down to the beach. Christie first recognized that it was trash. Imagine our disappointment! Then as we watched this trash bobble in the water, we realized it was an oar. So we kept it as a souvenir. Sure hope there isn't some kayaker stranded in the ocean without a paddle.

On Sunday we had lunch at the Rose Cafe near Venice Beach and walked around the Santa Monica Pier. Quite a fun weekend and I'll be missing my "Malibu friends"! I'm not sure how much they'll miss Malibu and the local paper with Pamela Anderson gracing the cover 2 out of every 3 weeks!


Then this past weekend, my friend Annie flew down to LA from Portland. Annie and I have done a lot of random stuff together - working for the Pennsylvania Dept of Agriculture, living in Dillsburg, study abroad in New Zealand, a crazy weekend in NYC, etc. etc. It was fun to get to show her around my new digs here, and go on a hike, and revisit the 80's, as you can see from this picture!

Dignity

Love one another...a lesson we've been taught since we were big enough to knock over another child. But why?
Because God made us all, right? Have you really thought about it, though? I haven't thoroughly...until now. Why must we love someone who has wronged us? Why should we love murderers, thieves, adulterers? Well, the answer is, in a sense, because God made us all. But to go deeper, it's because we are made in His image. Every living human being bears the image of God, inextricably linking us all together regardless of race, gender, age or culture. Therefore, as image-bearers of God, we have dignity...this is not dignity that is earned from good works; it is only as a result of being a creation of God. Can we lose this dignity from sin? No...when sin first entered the world, the image of God was not destroyed, but tarnished. It is impossible to rid oneself of their inherent dignity as a child of God.
As our professor shared in his lecture, "When I respect the rights of another person who shares the image of God, I am respecting the image of God in myself at the same time. When I denigrate the another, I am consequently denigrating myself. But by honoring the image of God in others, we honor both God and ourselves."
So what's the point of all this "theological verbiage"? It's just helped me understand why I am called to "love my enemy." This is what we're discussing in my Children at Risk class, where we talk about the most vile offenses against children - trafficking, prostitution, abuse, forced labor, children forced to be soldiers. All defenseless, innocent children. But this lesson is not advocating to excuse the perpetrators who force such harm against children. They must face consequences of their actions...and too many never do pay any penalties - at least on this earth. However, we must find the grace to recognize even these polluted individuals as an image-bearer of God and worthy of the effort to restore them to reconciliation with their Redeemer.
So next time you get really angry with someone or are tempted to take advantage of another, think of this.

Romans 3:23...For all have sinned...