Light Up the Sky

Walking back to our hotel in Beijing from dinner tonight, we saw several twinkling colored lights in the sky. Upon discovery that they were kites, a curious few of us decided to investigate and followed the lights to a bridge crossing a canal. Here were several kite flyers with huge heavy stringed kites, attached to harnesses strapped around their chests. The kites had little blinking LED lights along the strings in blues, reds, and greens that twinkled and danced in the night sky. Several people stopped on the bridge to enjoy the show as the warm breeze cleared the pollution and freshened the air. When one man's reel malfunctioned, many gathered around to offer suggestions and try to help. It was neat how it became almost a community ordeal, people wanted to help and stuck around until the problem was fixed. The Chinese seem to be good at living in community.
This short time that I got to experience, is just one example of how things can be very different in China,(I've never seen anyone fly a kite at night in America,) but not necessarily bad. Soooo many things here are different. Here I am the farm girl from Nebraska staying in a city of 17,420,000 people. We use public transportation, buses, subways, and taxis are all new to me, but we're learning how to get along. I'm eating a lot of different foods, but it hasn't caused any stomach problems, and the chopstix and I are learning to get along as well!
As I watched the kites, sparkling in the dark sky, I was reminded how we as believers are to be a light to the world. In a talk about Esther, I learned that she didn't necessarily want to do many of the things she had to do, and had to change things about herself, but in the end was able to accomplish a great task to protect her people. I was challenged to look at the situation that I'm in and look for ways that might be different and uncomfortable to me that I might have to change my mindset in order to best live with and serve the people of China. Evaluating the things I need to change is not very fun, but I believe necessary. And hopefully it will help me be a light that many people will see and be drawn to the holder of the kite, my Father.