Our Adventuresome Lives

Blur

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:44:00 -0800

As the title of this post aptly describes, these last three months in North Carolina have been a blur. How is it possible that we were here for Halloween? Really? Did we spend a Christmas here as well? I barely remember it. It is all dim and foggy, like today has been. Grey and saturated. I guess the best way to describe this move is to compare it to our year away. We just feel like we are on another trip here. Not putting down roots. Taking in the quaint cultural differences and way of life. Frequenting the antique stores and getting our fill of real fried chicken and biscuits. But I am pretty convinced we fit in better hanging out on our stoop in Granada or sauntering into the Source Cafe in Jinja. Those places felt more like home than this one, all the way across the country from the one we have always known, but on the same continent. I guess the best description of how we currently feel is that as the kids and I drove up to our house from DC, we felt like we weren’t coming home. It just felt like another stopping place. I think we were even more happy and fulfilled in DC, where we actually felt like we were traveling: visiting, exploring, negotiating the Metro. We love that kind of thing. We know we can thrive in that. We love to travel. Love the adventure. Love the challenge of figuring it out. All that to say, there is no way we would not be here. MANA and the work they are doing is just too important. It would be so sad not to play a part. But here we are. Longing for other places. Even California, ironically. I am craving either the intimately familiar (santa ana winds blowing, 80 degree “winter” days or a long weekend at Joshua Tree) or the drastically different (read foreign). Still appreciating the beauty of this place. But realize it will probably never be home. Just lettin’ you know.

-Dione

Potomac Dusk

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:37:00 -0800

Potomac Dusk

More Vernon

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:36:00 -0800

More Vernon

Mt. Vernon

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:34:00 -0800

Mt. Vernon

Jefferson Memorial

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:30:00 -0800

Jefferson Memorial

Misty

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:30:00 -0800

Misty

Monument at Sunset

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:30:00 -0800

Monument at Sunset

Washington Monument, Etc.

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:29:00 -0800

Washington Monument, Etc.

DC is Cold…But Beautiful

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:00:00 -0800

DC is Cold…But Beautiful

Raptor Rehabilitation Center

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:17:00 -0800

Raptor Rehabilitation Center

Charlotte at Night

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:07:54 -0800

Charlotte at Night

Festive

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:04:00 -0800

Festive

Exploring

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:04:00 -0800

Exploring

More Monroe

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:07:00 -0800

More Monroe

Photo Safari in Monroe

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:02:00 -0800

Photo Safari in Monroe

Christmas in Charlotte

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:00:00 -0800

Christmas in Charlotte

Behold…the Star

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:34:00 -0800

Behold…the Star

Inside Christmas

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:33:00 -0800

Inside Christmas

Our NC House at Christmas

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:32:00 -0800

Our NC House at Christmas

Beautiful Thoughts

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:02:00 -0800

We are truly blessed to still be in touch with two dear friends from Hume days, who also happen to be married. The Trues. They are pursuing the path that God has them on, which includes Tim attending Episcopal seminary in Tennessee. Their path is way more complex and beautiful than what I am portraying and they minister to us in their obedience and through their servant’s hearts. Both of them are also gifted with words and it is a treat to receive their monthly newsletter, to keep up with them and their family and what God is doing in their lives. This last letter, focusing on Hope in Advent, had some interesting thoughts that moved me and that I’d like to share:

“Vergil, the great Roman poet, is perhaps best known for his Aeneid. It tells the story of what happened to the Trojans who survived the fateful war with the Greeks, how they sailed off under the competent and selfless leadership of Aeneas into the Mediterranean and faced hardships and adventures, and how eventually they landed on the shores of Italy and founded a new Troy, Rome—more or less anyway.

Well, if the Aeneid is Vergil’s best-known work, coming in a close second—and this is where I want to focus—is his fourth Eclogue. Sometimes referred to as his “Messianic” Eclogue, it is a poem concerned with life in the here and now, and how it is not like it used to be, once upon a time, in the good old days; but also how we human beings have reason to hope in a coming new age. A maiden—another word for virgin—is mentioned. Then, a child will enter the scene, Vergil says, one like a son of the gods. And with his arrival the age of iron will begin to diminish, eventually to cease. This boy will grow into a man, and he will rule humanity with his father’s wise and benevolent virtues. Of its own accord the earth will pour forth gifts to the boy, the lion will no longer kill or injure the flock, and all snakes will perish. Ship merchants will no longer have need of crossing the seas, for each land will yield over-abundantly for its inhabitants. And so on.

But you get the picture, right? This poem, which beautifully expresses a popular hope in Vergil’s day of a coming new age, with a little imagination could be referring to Christ Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, who left his rightful place in heaven and took on humanity, becoming God incarnate. This Christ was born of a virgin, lived as a man, died, was raised, and now sits at the right hand of his Father until he should come again in his fullness. Moreover, his teachings when he walked the earth were radical for his day, calling for everyone but especially those who identified themselves as God’s people to love even their enemies. And, as you know, in the context of Jewish life under Roman political authority such love was no easy task. But isn’t this what Vergil is saying? Isn’t Christ’s “fullness” the same thing as Vergil’s coming new age? Most Christians thought so throughout the Middle Ages. Some still think so today.

Now here’s the interesting part. Vergil was an Augustan poet. That means he lived and worked and wrote in the time of Augustus. He died, in other words, before Jesus was ever born. Some fifteen years in fact. Who was the boy then that Vergil had in mind? Augustus? Augustus’s anticipated son? Was Vergil thinking of a specific person at all? Much has been made of these questions, and not just by pre-modern Christians. The simple answer is that we don’t know. But what we do see here, clearly, is that ideas about a coming new age were in the air. Such ideas and hopes were not just in the Essenes of the sectarian Qumran community. They permeated even the upper classes of Rome.”

There are two things in particular that I love in this. The first are the descriptions of Jesus, by both by Vergil and Tim. They give me goosebumps of excitement. Like my whole body, in spite of myself, gives God glory for who He created and what He has done. The second is that God is mysterious. We don’t understand His ways. If there is one thing I have gleaned on my spiritual walk with God, in my learning of Him with Him, is that there are no bounds to what He can use, do, and say. Who are we to limit Him? I love that there are so many unknowns in this story. That He could have been speaking and revealing Himself to Vergil. Whispering His great plan into his ear. Whispering to a famous poet who had the ears and minds of people of influence open to him. God spoke of the coming of His son, of His divine plan for hundreds of years before He physically placed His Son in this place. It was no secret. He was very clear about His plan, what He intended to do, but not exactly how He planned to do it. Clear, but also mysterious; still we could not grasp it. Some people today still don’t. But what a beautiful story of love and sacrifice, redemption and peace. Hope. One that we all need. One that we don’t deserve. But one that has been given to us so generously.

I love this story. It is a great reminder and mind bender. It is a beautiful message of hope and then fulfillment. Exactly what we should be focused on at this time of year: as we anticipate, remember, and celebrate Christ’s birth and God’s most incredible gift to us. We need to remember that God is huge. God is mysterious. But He and His story are whole. Even though we haven’t come to the end of it yet…

-Dione