The Big Sky

A friend came out to see me in Texas this weekend. He looked at the sky the first evening and said, “The sky is so big here. You can see so far from one side to the other.”

I looked up and realized that I've missed the big sky because it's always there. I wondered “What else do I miss because it's as constant as the sky?”

I have a picture taped to the wall above my desk. It is a crayon drawing of a man and a little girl in a field with "Joseph" and "Grace" written across the sky. Grace, my 5 year-old sister, gave me this last time I went home. I regularly get pictures or valentines like these from home.

I realized these homemade pictures are Grace's best way to say “I love you” to her brother 400 miles away.

The sky is overhead, and I am loved.

Global Christianity:

This weekend, I'm going to hear Philip Jenkins lecture on global Christianity in Dallas. He wrote The Next Christendom several years ago about the shift of Christianity from a largely Western religion to a dominant force in the southern hemisphere. He wrote about the clash between Southern and Western Christianity before it happened (the division in the global Anglican church) and between Islam and Christianity before 9/11. I disagree with his definition of Christianity, but his ideas are important to understand and think about. If you're in DFW, call me up and we'll go.

J.F. Radosevich