When in the Wilderness

After writing the blog entry yesterday, I spent some more time with God. I "just happened" to turn to Psalm 78 which describes God's kindness to the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness, grumbling and not trusting God. He had done "wonders" and "marvelous things" for them such as parting the Red Sea and bringing water out of rocks. He provided for them by giving them manna to eat. Still they had a terrible attitude. Later the Psalmist wrote, "Yes, many a time He turned His anger away and did not stir up His wrath; For He remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again." (vs. 38,39)
This Psalm gave me a couple of messages. One is that God understands that we are flesh. He understands when we get weary and we grumble and struggle. Another important message is that God expects us to have the right attitude and turn away from rebelling and grumbling. We have His power to help us. We're filled with His Spirit. We can either focus on what's wrong here and what we miss about home, or we can focus on God's wonders and marvelous things such as getting Kalina and getting our I600A approval from Nadeem's cleared fingerprints. We can focus on God's provision of health for all three of us, a nice place to stay, a laptop to communicate with home, clean water, a multitude of prayer warriors lifting us up daily, God's servants taking care of our home and cats, senators' staff to help us, and on and on.
I've heard people complain before that Christianity is a bunch of rules. Any good parent gives his child rules to keep the child safe and thriving. When God tells us to thank Him and to focus on what's good, that's for our benefit. Yes, it's sometimes very difficult. God is so good that He gives us the ability to do this, knowing we are flesh and cannot do it on our own. When we fall down, He lovingly lifts us up.
Bangladesh is filled with cawing black crows. When we visit the roof, they surround us. Some have landed a foot or two away from Kalina which really disturbs me. Yesterday we saw a bully crow knock another crow off a post and take over his spot. Several weeks ago I woke up during the night with a heavy heart. I went into our "prayer closet" (a.k.a bathroom) to pray. While praying, a huge flock of crows congregated right outside the window, cawing loudly. It disturbed me so much that I ran to Nadeem, woke him up, and made him pray with me.
While we were on the roof yesterday, I saw a sight I've never seen here before....a solid white bird. I only saw it for a moment. It swooped down in the distance and then disappeared. It reminded me of a dove. Last night when the darkness pressed in, I felt very comforted thinking about that white bird that was outside.
Thanks for praying for us!