One letter can change everything...

As most of you know, we made a trip to Iowa last week to spend time with Christie's family for Thanksgiving.  We left early Sunday morning right before the sun rose.  That is not something that I experience often as I am anything but an early riser.  As we were driving and the sun rose, I was amazed at how quickly it rose once it started.  I mentioned to Christie that it's even crazier when you remember that the sun is not moving, but we are, even though we don't feel the movement. 
On the trip home, we had an unexpected trip to the emergency room due to my inability to remember to drink any water at all over the holiday weekend.  Luckily everyone made it out of the situation alive and well and I realize that is worth being very grateful for....I do.  But it also made me think about how crappy much of 2013 has been.
Deaths of loved ones far too soon, tornado devastation, extremely poor personal decisions, cancer, car accidents, tickets, trips to the hospital.  A great deal has gone wrong this year.  But then again...I've got to see the power of love first hand....I've seen it surround a family as they pick up the pieces after losing everything in a tornado.  I've seen it surround a family who lost both their parents in a matter of days.  I've seen it surround a young lady who became a widow far far far too soon.  I've seen love shown to me when I didn't deserve it from my wife.  I've seen it in the friends that stepped up for Christie and I in the last year throughout these trials.  I've seen, maybe more than any other year that I can recall, the power that love and compassion have to restore and rebuild people and relationships.
I am a Christian but realize that many reading this may not be.  Doesn't matter one little bit in how I love you.  God can be many things to many people but to me, it is summed up with words like LOVE and COMPASSION.  I believe that God gave his Son so that we may know that love and compassion.
Which brings me back to where we begin this story.  As we drove that early Sunday morning, I thought about the sun. How with our limited perception it feels as though the sun moves around us....sometimes in sight and sometimes not.  Sometimes close and sometimes far away.  When in reality, it never moves, it is us that draw close and pull away. 

Then I changed a letter...
and the same thing applies with us and the Son. 

There have been times in the past year that I have felt far away from God....felt far away from love and compassion and grace.  But He was always there.  It was me that pulled away from what is always available and always present to us if we choose to open ourselves up.  And that realization my friends, is worth getting up early for...