His Handiwork Seen

The moon was still high in the sky and the tiny white stars were fading, as Sarah, Steph and I made out way down the hotel steps and out into the parking lot. An outline of 11 people could be dimly seen, towels in hand, and eyes still half shut from just tumbling out of bed. But it was the anticipation of the adventure at hand, that was the driving force behind our feet hitting the floor and carrying us outside at 6am.

It was the first time we'd seen barren roads in Haiti, as the two Hertz vehicles sped through the sleeping townships that morning. There were no braying donkeys or playing children – no women walking with baskets on their heads, or men speeding on motorcycles. We had only heard one rooster crowing, announcing the arrival of a new day. The day of our departure.

We arrived at the hotel of our AM destination, drove through the open gates and parked in the courtyard. Following Al through the front doors and out the back of the building, I caught a glimpse of our anticipated destination.

The light blue water stretched out towards the horizon, reflecting the hues of pink and light purple from the morning sky. There wasn't a wave or a lull, but calm water – distant mountains to the far left and but water reaching towards the horizon on the right. This was the Caribbean.

I dipped my toes in the bath water and immediately sunk the rest of the way in. Lying on my back, I looked up at the sky, coloured in the morning light and decorated with white and pink wisps of clouds around the disappearing stars. A delicate slice of moon hung directly above us, as we floated in the salty, warm waters of the Caribbean, our faces towards heaven.

And I remember thinking that this was one of the best moments of this trip - A moment when I was clearly reminded -“The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork...when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained: What is man that thou art mindful of him?” Psalm 19:1, Psalm 8:3-4. We had seen so much brokenness in the past week and witnessed chaos of desperation. We had been surrounded in poverty, people who were hungry for food and exhausted beyond their own physical strength. The land had been stripped of the majority of it's trees and farmers were few to none, to bear fruit with the land. Towns were drowning in their own waste and garbage – made filthy by men themselves. But here in a land that had been plagued with poverty and destruction, God's beauty could still be seen. Men couldn't wipe out the reflection of the morning colours on the Caribbean waters. They couldn't take away the mountains that stood out under the fading stars, or remove the moon reflecting the glory of the sun. His handiwork still abounded in the land and the waters he had formed, and increasingly so in the beautiful sky He painted with each new day. So I ask, what is man that you are mindful of Him? And when I hear Him answer, I am awed all over again. Wow, how God loves us!