"the one thing"

Wow....what a worldwind of the past few days....had someone told me a year ago, where I would have been this week, I would have never believed them...I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that I was standing in the middle of the "Capitol of the World"....or New York City. If you have been there, you know why I am at a loss of words really trying to condense an experience like that into a few words....I have had many people ask me today, what was the one thing you loved the most....ONE thing....ONE thing...wow....Do I choose what it was like walking along the streets of Manhattan and looking up at those towering, powerful, overwhelming buildings that explode upward as far as you can see? Do I choose the beautiful historic architecture that is hidden in all the little crevices, that you have to look up and search to see? Do I choose the what it felt like to drive across Manhattan bridge and experience Brooklyn and Queens? Do I choose the moment I was mugged by squirrels in Battery Park? Or do i choose how I cried when my heart swelled at the moment I was awestruck at Lady Liberty, or....do I choose the moment I cried, because my heart was breaking as I walked around St. Paul's cathedrial, or..... the moment my heart completely shattered while standing at ground zero, and noticed the buildings that still have burn marks? How do you choose one moment, one thing, to sum up an experience like that? It came to me, while I was looking at my China Town, knock off purse.....it is a crazy, eccentric pattern, of different colors, and patterns, all sewn together to create, what I think, is a perfect representation of NYC....my moment came to me. I was standiing in Times Square, right beneath where the New Year's Eve ball drops....and just for a moment, I closed my eyes, breathing in the smells from all the deli's and bakeries, and standing like that, I found myself just being quiet, taking in the moment, absorbing it into my being, where I could always remember it. And that is when I found myself listening to all that was going on around me...when you close your eyes to all that wonderful chaos, your other senses kick in.....I could hear people speaking Italian to my right.....Korean to my left.....German somewhere behind me......off to the side, languages I couldn't even identify....and of course all around, the sound of English....but yet somehow,....all of those blended together to make this beautiful chorus.....and it hit me....THAT is why I love America.....we are the only nation in the world that can have that much diversity, that many people, and yet come together to make one......one amazing, world changing nation. We all have the same blood, the same heart, the same core...and it reminded me of the what the bible teaches about the body of Christ....what an amazing representation of that....thru Him, we all have the same heart, the heart of a Holy, Loving, Father, who sees and knows each of His children, ....and thru Him, we have the same blood, the blood of the One who gave all for us, and replaced our unforgivable blood with His own, ....so, the next time, someone asks me, "what was the ONE thing, you loved most about NYC?"...that is exactly what I will tell them....no where else in the world, can you stand in the middle of all that chaos, and still feel, somehow, this world isn't really so big afterall. OH, as a side note, if you ever have the chance to visit....please do....I promise it will change you!