Isaiah 30:18

I’m going to start out this month by sharing an image I took this summer in Lobatse, Botswana. I was privileged to travel with a group of young adults from another church in Lubbock to work with Urban Rhythm, a ministry founded by Lindsay and Shannon Shores. Their adopted son, Lex Mallege, was one of my photography students and through a series of events, I ended up with an invitation to join them as they returned back to Botswana for the summer.

On the final day of our trip, we were able to go on an actual safari! We spent well over an hour or two driving around not seeing much. However, when we later ran into a family of giraffes, I think the guides made it up to us by stopping in this open area and letting us walk around to get the best pictures! I’ve taken pictures of giraffes before in a zoo, but never on an open plain where we were walking around together! It was definitely an experience of a lifetime, but admittedly, I still have a few animals from Africa on my “photography bucket list”!

As I’m often inspired to do, I took words from one of my favorite scriptures and connected it to this picture. “Rise up” was the phrase that stuck out to me, which made me think of this guy, of course. I love this verse because it’s a reminder that God longs to be gracious to us and He moves on our behalf to show compassion to us.

That’s astounding to me and it’s just another glimpse of how good God is that He moves toward us on our behalf and wants to reach out to us in kindness! There is no other god like that!

May the riches of His kindness and love fill your gaps in profound ways this month! See y’all tomorrow!