I am currently typing this blog while sitting in the waiting room of a San Jose Hospital trauma intensive care unit. I have just come out from seeing my brother, who because of a severe motorcycle accident, up until a few hours ago was balancing between life and death... We are now being encouraged by the doctors that Jordan looks like he is through the worst and continues to become more stable. Jordan is currently in a medically induced coma to aid in healing and lower stress for the multiple surgerys he is scheduled for in the next week or so. Standing over him quietly I observe all the hoses and monitors; he is unresponsive and lies still. Nurses bussel in and out. Jill, his wife, jabbers about how much better he looks. Under a sheet his chest cavity is held open to aid in care of the badly bruised internal organs. It was after being apart of this scene and looking intently upon the state of my dearest brother, unable to talk to him, pray with him, laugh at a joke that only the two of us get, or even have him smile in response to holding his hand that I realized something...this is just his physical shell. Simply a vessel for the soul of my brother. My beautiful brother lays alive somewhere inside this vessel before me. It is his spirit that gives life to the form before me. A gracious gift from God. I believe I now have a sliver of understanding for what Jesus felt as He looked with compassion upon Jeruselem. Because you see, God is not distracted or deceived by our exterior, our shell. Every moment across the spectrum of humanity God looks intently on the heart. He sees and truely knows us. He knows me, Nathan Cookston, and he knows you. The sense of love and closeness i felt standing admiring my brother, not his shell, is only a minute sample of how God feels regarding us. That truth brings me to my knees. To God I am humbly grateful.