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Traveling companion It’s a beautiful evening on the National Mall and Jesus keeps reminding me he’s near.

The Washington Monument, standing alone against a watercolor sky, reflects my mood of isolation as I start a week of business traveling. But slowly, the sound of Jesus's name works its way into my consciousness. Is that singing? It is. The music emanates from a long tent, set up on the grass. I wander in. A rather young worship team is praising Christ in front of a sparse audience. They’re in a full riff mode, repeating a few chords and a phrase or two over and over. One comes clearly to me: My life revolves around you.

It’s a good reminder. I am never walking alone. Jesus is at the heart of all I do. And I think back to how, as I left the parking garage this morning, I passed a woman ending a conversation with praise for Jesus. I smiled and added my Amen! She smiled back in a moment of fellowship. My life revolves around you. I meditate on the phrase as I leave the tent and wander on to find a triangular sculpture, made up of cubes. Inside the cubes, metal blades slowly turn in the slight breeze. Each has its own rotation. But they add together into the whole, making the triangle intricate and full of movement.

I am just one of the blades in Jesus’s kingdom. All around me are others with lives revolving around Jesus – all fitting together, reminding each other of his presence with us. As if to underline the point, God puts a drawing on display for me. In what is perhaps a homeless person’s sleeping spot, temporarily abandoned, a painter’s canvas leans up for passersby to notice. Prominent at the top is the name of Jesus.

Another reminder that he’s here.

A block from my hotel, an old man asks me for money. At first, I ignore him. But then I reconsider. I turn back, pull out a bill and give it to him, asking God’s blessing on him. It’s a small gesture. But it is a way that, after all his messages to me, I can answer back: yes, Lord, you are here.

And share him with someone.

Around, beneath, below, above,
Wherever space extends,
There God displays His boundless love,
And power with mercy blends.

Thank you, Jesus, for reminders that you walk with us. We are never alone. And you weave us into a great, living structure of others whose lives revolve around you. Make us more aware of your presence with us on our journey. Bruce Van Patter

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