No Worries

I love New York City. My son and I are here for his work for several weeks this summer. At first, our favorite saying was, "We aren't in Kansas anymore." Everywhere we turned we saw something we've never seen in our small town in East Texas. 


Today as we walked from the subway to the theater, I saw a sign in the middle of the sidewalk reading: 

CAUTION

MEN WORKING

OVERHEAD

I looked up—nothing. Well, something could fall on my head but I'd be oblivious just like the millions of other NYC pedestrians milling around. 


I started smiling as I walked and thought What if we put this sign up?

NO WORRIES

GOD WORKING

OVERHEAD AND

ON EARTH

Everyone keeps asking how I'm doing this—living and working in the city, riding subways, losing my son in the crowds, finding an apartment to rent. 

I saw something the first time we stepped into Times Square. You won't find it in the guide books—I tried to find it and it wasn't there. 

It's a statue—a large one—right in the middle of the lights that never go dim or the plaza that never empties. It's a cross on a war memorial. 

At first I thought, how odd! Now I see it and just remember that in the city that never sleeps there is a God who never slumbers as well. 

Indeed, he who watches over Israel

never slumbers or sleeps.

Psalm 121:4

 No worries, God is on His throne and I don't need to worry. 

Legacy

Knight's Helmet

Wandering around the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has been exhilarating and thought provoking. Everywhere are fabulous ancient artifacts—decorated weapons, funeral pieces and musical instruments. 


I'm with my teenage son so viewing it through his eyes is interesting. We had a funny chat over a lunch about all of the intricately decorated weapons from hundreds of years ago. We tried to picture our present-day GI's with decorated weapons.....didn't work very well. 

Highly detailed armory

Items left from various ancient civilizations are odd—combs, dishes, weapons, jewelry, doors. Some of the pieces are common and every day; others are elaborate and only used on ceremony days. 


Legacy. What will last from our civilization in 100's of years? What will last from my family in 100's of years or.......for eternity?


Much of the carved art—small and detailed or massive—had to do with funeral ceremonies. The more elaborate it could be made, the better the afterlife of the deceased or the longer they would be remembered. 


Remembering and celebrating the ancestors was important. Without massive or memorable landmarks, the person's life fades into oblivion. Becomes meaningless. 

Funeral Art to Memorialize the Dead
from Oceania 

So what is meaningful in my life? What do I want to last? How would I want to be remembered?


...as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthinians 4:18


The only thing worth remembering about me or passing on to my children are only the unseen, eternal elements. Nothing else really matters.