This weekend much of my extended family gathered in New Mexico to support each other in the difficult passing of my Uncle. I struggled with my inability to make that trip to join them--and my thoughts have been there heavily. The death of a follower of Christ is at once beautiful and sorrowful. The gathering of loved ones in those times is equally bittersweet. I'm sure you've been in that room. Friends and family who have been somehow out of touch, now sit together eating various casseroles relating current events and stories of long ago. The accomplishments of a life well lived are recounted and celebrated. One end of the table is full of tears even as another part of the room erupts in laughter--all the while little kids weave in and out, picked up and passed around by everyone.
I was part of a very similar reunion today with my spiritual family. Georgetown Church of Christ hosted a bilingual service and potluck in honor of the Christians from Riverside. It was so special to see people sitting at a table, eating various casseroles and remembering the physical transformation of that very nasty trailer. Listening to people making plans together, and telling stories from years ago. The powerful work God is accomplishing in people's lives being recounted and celebrated--and watching little kids get passed around.
The theme of the bilingual service was that we are all one unified family of believers regardless of location, language, or circumstance. That what we have in common in Christ is bigger than any differences of culture or communication.
I kept thinking of how many family gatherings I have been to, both happy and sad, where a pile of cousins who have never met are observed playing together and someone comments something like, "Well, you can tell they are family." That's what I saw today. I was watching as a group of toddlers, too young to speak English or Spanish jumped down the stairs giggling with each other, and moms who couldn't share words, shared that glance between each other that meant: "You can tell we are family."
Respeten a todos y amen a sus hermanos en Cristo...1 Peter 2:17
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Nicaragua? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Nicaragua in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez