By Christine

Every morning for the last six weeks, I’ve found myself lying in bed listening to the songbirds gently welcome the morning outside my window. The room is dark and still, except for the soft echoing from the tree planted along the patio wall. And as I lay there and listen, it feels like an invitation.

Their song, it feels like a beckoning, a snippet of hope, a promise. A reminder that we are resurrection people. The people who claim death and destruction, darkness and suffering don’t get the last word. That there are always signs of new life, of incarnation, of the goodness of God breaking into the world.

Joy and hope being born, blooming into broken places. Signs of life. A joyful calling as the morning sun rises to meet a new day full of possibilities, full of hope in unexpected and unanticipated places.

Simple and small though they might be, it’s felt like a gentle grace to greet the morning with this hopeful reminder, knowing our neighbors are hurting, knowing we are still wanting for peace.

Maybe if we take hold of that hope, catch their song and carry it with us into our days, we could change the world, make it look a little bit more like the world God dreams for us, children of God, one and all.

Christine was appointed to serve as CBF field personnel in June 2020, serving with the Africa/Middle East team.

Appointed to social work ministry, trauma therapy, and capacity building within refugee and migrant populations, she will also be available as a regional resource for other Field Personnel ministries in Africa and the Middle East with targeted therapies to refugee populations.