CR: it was orange.

Costa Rica. 

It was orange. 

Somehow, the brilliance of the setting sun and the blazing bonfire on the beach matched the intensity of the relationships that were forged that week. 

It burned orange because of my roommate and new friend, Melissa. The one that I prayed with in the mornings, stayed up late in long conversation with in the evenings, and laughed with every moment in-between. 

It radiated orange when I met with Joshua & Naomi, pouring out deep hurts and fears that came almost as quickly as the tears spilling across my untouched dinner plate. 

Orange when they spoke words of truth to my raw and weary heart. 

It shone orange when I listened to new friends share old stories of life in deep and sometimes dangerous parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. Orange when I smiled and shared my new ones. 

Someone said these weeks away can be like a pressure cooker for relationships; they build and accelerate at a pace uncommon to that of the "real world".  

I'd have to say it's true. And on my flight out of Costa Rica, as I looked at the storms shoot light into the gloomy clouds below, I thanked God for the way He's given me my dearest friends to work with. Old and new. And that they shine like the sun (Matthew 13:43).

Costa Rica was orange.