from this vantage

One evening in early June, 

while we were staying just outside of Hong Kong,

we took a ferry in to the city,

Mark, Elise, Amy & Michael on the Hong Kong ferry

where we hopped on a double-decker bus

and rode through the streets of Hong Kong.

Michael on the top deck of the bus

 It's a clean and pleasant city,

but full of traffic, 

and hedged in by imposing, massive cement structures.

It's not a place of beauty.

The bus took us steadily upward to Victoria Peak,

the famous hill overlooking Hong Kong.

Mark, Elise, Amy & Michael on Victoria Peak

This was the same spot where Mark and I stood in 1995,

when we lived in Japan and visited Hong Kong together.

It was here where, all those years ago, above the walls of the city,

we had watched the night fall,

and the lights of the city blazon in magical beauty.

This time we watched the transformation together as a family.

What a special evening!

From this vantage, 

Hong Kong looked like a very different city 

than the one we'd seen from the bus.

On the same tram Mark and I rode back down the peak in '95 -

racing BACKWARD down the mountain.

Exciting!

This view from Victoria Peak is the image stamped on my mind 

of the city of Hong Kong...

 from this vantage, a place of beauty!

I want a consistent life-vantage like this...

to see things from God's higher viewpoint instead of my natural one.  

To see beauty despite a massive or imposing prospect;

and even when I can't see the beauty yet, 

to joy in the assurance that His design is always perfection!