Getting to the wedding this week was an investment. For Micah's eight siblings it meant taking off work, shelling out for plane tickets, reservations at an Airbandb, renting cars, and showing up with photography, bags full of groceries, and sound equipment. For the six people in our car it translated to twenty hours on the road. Each way. 

John and  I traded off the driving, staving off exhaustion with chocolate espresso beans and music. Gazing at the landscape for a thousand miles was a wordless reminder of just how small I am. As I uncurled my chronically nearsighted vision to include acres of corn, the wide sky in every direction, and the six lanes of interstate piercing Indianapolis I recalled the obscure awareness that God has a lot to take care of. 

I wonder if astronauts are magnanimous simply because they see the big picture. Perhaps kindness is the inevitable result of replacing egocentricity with outward intent.  

One of the subtleties in the story of the Garden of Eden is simply about placement. At first the Tree of Life is in the center while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is to the side. As the first couple on earth turns away from following God the trees swap. This is a symbol of selfishness supplanting otherness. 

It's not about me. When I return to that notion I become impervious to offenses, unconcerned with expectations, and awash with gratitude. The siblings that showed up to support their brother were fueled by Generosity. 

It's a force that can transplant trees, push airplanes across the sky, bring families together, and hurl mountains into the sea. 

"You can say to this mountain be cast into the sea and it will be done."

Mark 11