Library of people.

Hello.

As mentioned before, I don't have a lot of money and seeing as I moved my life down here in my little Nissan Sentra, I don't particularly have the most elaborately decorated townhouse. In fact, as a humorous side note, as of now, my living room consists of this enormous dining room table with two tiny short bar stools as its companion for seating, a television (that is partially melted because months ago I left my flat iron on it and melted the thing…oops!), a couple of random lamps, and a purple wicker chair...yes, purple, and yes, a chair, not a couch meaning only one person can sit. But it's my townhouse, full of simplicity...and I just love it.

My bedroom...my bedroom has an air mattress that I sleep on, a cross on the wall, and then, a bookcase. The bookcase is actually what I've been trying to get at. You see, I have some books. Not too many, but some. To be honest, I'm sort of a book hog. I like my books. And to be even more honest, I don't even have that many, but I'm proud of the ones I do have. I might even shamefully admit that sometimes I even sit and count them - I know, sounds extremely pathetic, and it probably is; but, for whatever reason, I get some sort of odd satisfaction knowing how much information my brain has encountered.

Anyway, I have placed each one of my books on my bookcase, exactly where I want each book to be. In fact, and some of you may know, but I'm a bit of an extremist when it comes to organization. My bookcase is just perfect! It’s set-up just the way I want it and just the way I like it!

But little did I know that my life was being played out with my bookshelf and book organizing obsession. You see, recently I've had a total shift in my world-perspective, a total shift in my understanding of a God bigger than me.

I am Casework Management Coordinator here at American Red Cross, so daily I work with people from all different backgrounds, cultures, and areas of the world. Daily, I hear their stories. Daily, I'm coming to realize that this world of ours is really big.

And I am very, very small. I can barely begin to attempt to understand everything going on, good and bad. I can barely wonder why and how things happen. For me to be in control would be a very scary thing, but for years I have tried to control this world in which I live. But I simply cannot control this world. It's too big. But it's not too big for God and God is in control. And to realize that there is a God big enough to be in control, to know that He's the same in West Michigan as He is in Charlotte, to know that it isn't always about having an answer as to why things happen or asking Him to place certain things a certain way. But to know, to trust, that upon whatever we're led to and through, He'll be working for our good. I can't even begin to grasp how beautiful I'm finding this all to be.

So I've come to find that I can't just place God in my life like I place books on my bookshelf. In fact, I shouldn't be placing things at all. I am not the bookkeeper; I am simply a book. I am a story, a story surrounded by a million other stories. And I am just one. One book...one story, placed on the shelf just ever-so-gently, ever-so-knowingly, ever-so-accordingly to be part of the greatest story of all.

So this world...it isn't simply about a tiny little bookshelf in my room, it's much more beautiful than that. It's a Library of People.

Cheering you on as the story continues to press on.

May you find rest in the place the Father so lovingly has placed you today.

Kaylee