Restoration and Reconciliation

Thirty-four days on the road during this recent trip to India included twenty-two days of teaching, seventeen flights over the course of eight days, and six partners in five cities.

India continues to amaze me.  It is a country that is one third the size of the United States in terms of geography, but four times the size in population.  I kept trying to imagine how much water is consumed daily in this country...how much trash is produced...how many coconuts are consumed daily...how much grain...etc.  There are governments who struggle to govern 7 or 9 million people and this government seeks to govern 1.4 billion people.  No small task.  There is an immense need for infrastructure, jobs, economic and educational opportunities, and so on.

It is one of 190+ countries in the world that is engaged in this time of restoration and reconciliation, caught between the "now" and the "not yet" that we think through during this time of Easter.  The "now" looks at the amazing potential of eight billion people to work toward the flourishing of all people and all of creation.  The "not yet" acknowledges that we fall very far short of this goal because of our own sin and selfishness.  

Every day we have the opportunity to participate through our work in the restoration of how it should be, from Genesis 1 and 2.  Every day we have to deal with the need for reconciliation between how it is and how it could be.  What an opportunity and calling!

May God continue to grant us the grace needed to embrace this calling daily, to seek to glorify Him in all we do, seeking to do our work as an act of worship.

I leave you with some pictures of businespeople I met while in India:

Four men from a lower caste work two-three days, hand embroidering beads on this material for a sari.

This man and his brother have a great business of making all sorts of different size plastic containers for soaps, foods, fertilizers, etc.  So interesting to watch!

A small start-up beverage business serving a local community.