Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, April 14, 2023
One of my secret sorrows as a child in my elementary school classroom was that no globes, or maps of the United States, showed my hometown.
I could imagine kids in schoolrooms in Chicago or New York or Honolulu casually giving the classroom globe a spin, stopping it with a finger, and saying “That’s where I live!” And sure enough, printed in imperial black, would be the name of their city.
I knew, of course, that Redfield, South Dakota (pop. 2,700), located as it was in one of those anonymous Great Plains rectangles, was definitely not a hub or go-to destination for most people. But I never lost my wistful hope that my birthplace would be noted.
This past Thursday I was on the second floor of the HalfPrice Books store in Redmond, Washington. On the floor, propped against a bookshelf, I saw this map of the United States. “Aha,” I thought. “This map is of an impressive scale. I can see South Dakota, square and stolid, there in the upper middle. Maybe . . . just maybe . . . .”
And sure enough. There, hovering proudly above the T and A in “Dakota”, was my home town! And around it were other towns I knew well: Aberdeen, where I attended college; Huron, site of the South Dakota State Fair and also where I bought my first and only violin; and even the “Badlands N.P.” (National Park) over to the left!
I didn’t actually bend down, plant my finger on my birthplace, and proclaim, “I’m from there!” but I wanted to.
Know where I’m going with this? Sure you do. Even though our Creator generated, superintends and powers the billions of galaxies whose mysteries the James Webb Space Telescope is squinting into, He remembers our galaxy, our solar system, our planet, its cities and villages, and our homes, and our faces, and our hearts.
So whoever you are, and wherever you’re from (even though you might not be quite sure), He knows your name. He loves you. He knows you intimately, and can’t wait for you to meet Him.
Read the Bible verses at the following link to find out more:
https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/topics/love