I friend who lived in Kolkata while we were there last year has returned to the States. As she and her family re acclimate to the lifestyle there, she mentioned their trip to the library. It was just the local library in their city, but the kids were PUMPED! They had not been to a library in over a year! Well, as I listened I was taken aback, because I had not thought of a library in a loooong time either.
Later in the conversation, she mentioned passing a graveyard and how her 5 year old child, "Look, it's idols!" "No," explained her older sister,"that's a cemetery- a place where dead people are put and those are the stones that tell who they are." (Good explanation, huh?) Well, as she spoke I was shocked to realize that I had not seen a headstone in a year and a half. Hindus in India cremate their dead loved ones. Likewise in Thailand among Buddhists. (There is a cemetary in Kolkata that Eddie and Hudson visited to see names of Christians- I never went.)
Isn't it funny how things we take for granted as part of the frame of our worldview, of our culture are so easily forgotten in another context? I can only imagine what it will be like for 4 year old Jonathan when we are Stateside!
It also made me think how much we can live without and still be whole and productive for God's Kingdom. We are all resilient-yes, you too!
Just some thoughts.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
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