Back in Lubbock, Ollie was always jealous of our friends, the Hohbein's, neighborhood. (Laura, he didn't know about THAT family. AmIright??!) He loved their culdasac because it was so chock full of kids: someone was always out riding a bike, someone looking for a friend to play four square, kids with chalk, kids practicing home made talent shows. It reminded me of something from another era when families knew and spoke to one another face to face, rather than fb messaging.
I think we have stumbled on something very similar.
I can't believe how much I love our new neighborhood. I never once thought Jon and I would be new construction people, but here we are and I couldn't be more happy. Our street is currently an enormous mess. In a three-ish block span, I bet 7-12 houses are currently being built, which creates a lot of noise, trash, and tradesmen trucks parked all over the street. But I say build on, because in one week or four months, that house will have a family. More kids for my kids to run around with, more families to get to know.
So far we have met families from Wyoming, New York, St. Louis, Round Rock, Laos, Kenya, and Virginia. While our neighborhood is lacking in diversity of age, (it seems to be a whole slew of young families moving into starter-type homes) we are excelling in diversity of race, ethnicity, and culture. I hear spanish everyday and I love it. There is one neighborhood park that has been built (so far) and many days you can see 10-ish kids playing football, riding bikes, and swinging. They are happy to have found one another; most of the kids have been bored out of their minds because of a pandemic and then a move to a new neighborhood. These kids have many shades of skin, many types of hair. They are sharing languages and laughs. It does my heart so good to see this and I can't help but think of heaven. I'm reminded of Revelation where it speaks about every tongue, tribe and nation worshiping as one. I'm so grateful to be reminded of God's creativity in creating people and learning to love people as He does.
Our neighborhood also is sandwiched between two schools to the north and a nature area with a creek and outdoor amphitheater to the south. After many cancelled concerts, the amphitheater has figured out a way to let the show go on. They have made these pen type areas around in a field, calling them pods. They are lining up performers again, and you can purchase tickets and attend as long as you stick to your pod. As you can imagine, if you are the neighborhood sandwiched right by this, plenty of folks are on their porches and in their driveways making the most of a night of free entertainment.
This last weekend Snoop Dogg and Nelly performed Friday night with Josh Abbott on Saturday. The neighborhood kid crew has been planning a Harry Potter party/movie night for themselves for a while and thus the perfect evening was born. The house closest to the amphitheater hosted; kids inside watching the Sorcerer's Stone, parents in the backyard listening to Snoop and Nelly. I went for a run Saturday evening and didn't even need my tunes on my phone, rather enjoyed live music instead. I had already been ruminating on how diverse heaven will be, and let me tell you, this only drove home the point. I'm not sure you could get a further stretch on modes of entertainment than Nelly, Snoop Dogg, Harry Potter, and Jost Abbott. After covid, politics, and the fight for racial equality, this kind of diversity just makes me so happy. Come, Lord Jesus, come! I'm looking forward to the block party in heaven.
Mandrakes!
No comments:
Post a Comment