Paradise Found

I would say it is like being in love, but I am not sure I know what that feels like. Besides, can someone really be so consumed by something like this? It is all I have thought about the last three days. Ever since I saw it, I can not get it out my mind.

Before I saw it, I said to my two companions, "When I see it, I want to know that it's the one. I want to have a supernatural sensation that this is the one." Just before we rolled up to the discreet laneway, the three of us had prayed that God would turn Miguel's hands the way the car should go. I peered down the drive and as I strove to see what lie beyond the locked gate, the bulging base of a towering tiborochi tree peeked back at me. Glimpses of tropical vegetation framed the narrow vista. As if it were the wardrobe into Narnia, I felt drawn to enter and explore the lengths of this land.

We waited in the taxi for a time, until the landkeeper arrived from picking up his boy from school...on his pedal bike. Swinging gates ushered us into the park-like atmosphere. Posh palms and plants that oozed with purple flowers followed the lead of an unpainted, picket fence. A thatch roof cabin sat beside a bare terrace, empty and waiting to be transformed into office space. The terrace begged for blossom bearing vines to climb its naked slats. I smelled the smoke of sausages as they sizzled over a charcoal BBQ. I heard the chiming laughter of Dora and Bella as they chased one another in a round of tag. The chatter of English and Spanish filled the air for a moment and I saw teams of volunteers coming to construct a casa along side their Bolivian brothers. I envisioned the silhoutte of a home with windows that shut and a roof that keeps the rain off bedroom floors.

I love this land. I want to go in and take this land...for the girls, for the Lord. I want the girls to dwell in this land. Its bottle-like porportions have imprinted themselves in my mind. One encounter with its loveliness has ruined me for other lands. Yet, I am not the only one who must love her. She must be loved by a handful of others before she can be bought. God, if this is the piece of paradise that you have saved for my girls and their new home, I trust you to do the taking.