longing for familiar faces...

There's a line in a song that I've heard recently (in Japanese) that goes something like this: "The closer you are to something, the harder it is to see."

I've been thinking some about the truth in that statement, how when we get too close to people it's easy to take them for granted. When we live in a certain situation or way, it's easy to forget how lucky and fortunate we are. I live in a country full of people literally so close to each other (very densely populated here, try riding a rush hour train sometime.) yet so unable to see what their lives really are, or what they really have.

"The closer you are to something, the harder it is to see."

But recently, I've been noticing that when we are far away, it is also difficult to see.

Maybe the problem is we are just not remembering to look.

A forgetful people we are.

Last Sunday I went to the church I worked at previously for the first time in about a month. It felt like I had been gone forever. But just seeing the familiar faces brought me such peace.

Last week and this week I was visited by old friends and shared breakfast with them. How good it was to see their faces. You sometimes don't even realize how much you miss seeing them until they are in front of you.

It makes me sad not being able to see my roommate for most of the week because our schedules are so different. It makes me sad that I haven't see the band or my friends from there for three months...

I never realized the power familiar faces had.


Tonight as I was commuting home, I was walking through one of the stations I transfer through. As I was looking at the faces walking all around me, my eyes would play tricks on me, and I would think, "Hey, that's~ no wait, he doesn't live around here. He's no longer my student. And he looks like~. Yet again, there's no way Jr. High school students would be this far from home..." I kept seeing familiar faces in strangers.

And I missed those faces, longing to see them again. Longing to know how their lives are going. Longing to share parts of their lives with them.

And it made me think of how many people I'm separated from.


I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to return home to America for a while this summer. I'm really looking forward to it. It's been 3 or 4 years, and there are so many faces I'm longing to see. Family, friends, church members. There are so many faces I still won't be able to see due to distance and cost... But I'm anticipating how much joy there will be just seeing familiar faces for the first time in years.




And while this is mostly the ramblings of a slightly sleep deprived blogger, there is one small connection I'd like to make.

Why do I long so much for familiar faces? Is it because we are made for fellowship? Is it just because it's familiar?

I think it's deeper than that.

Because these familiar faces have all shown me a different side of God. We are all made in His Image, we all bear the imprints of His own likeness. So every familiar face carries some part of a reflection of my God, who is the ultimate longing of my heart. I have learned so much about God from the people He has blessed me with.

And isn't it nice to know that my life is so much more blessed with more familiar faces than I can recall?

And there will be more familiar faces in the future!


I'm looking forward to the days when I can see you again, and remember your personal, unique likeness of my God.

This is a "Life is awesome moment."

enjoy.