After an intense and interesting study tour with Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, and a fair amount of catching up, I am grateful to be back. Perhaps one of the most striking images from our trip together was the miraculous nature of the people we met.
I met an Arab-Palestinian youth from Bethlehem named Fadi. He was born on the wrong side the separation wall. The youth on the other side of the wall enjoy life comparable to Canadians the same age. Fadi lives with very little that brings laughter and joy. However, he does live with too much tension: the kind we can’t even imagine here in Canada. The day that we met with him Israeli fighter jets flew overhead towards Syria. The military tension was starting to boil over and everyone knew it. Their political, religious, social, economic, and military realities are so complicated and heated that one can’t help wonder how they have any hope at all. And so I asked this young boy, “Do you wish you were on the other side of this wall?” And this young Fadi, between the ages of my own two sons, said, “No. I wish the wall was not there. Maybe one day. But for now, I have my family and my friends and we have fun. Even on this side.”
Miraculous things happen all around us through the lives of people who do something to honour and add to the life of another person. Don’t wait for the miracle to come to you. Live the miracle that God is working around you right now. It is only by living it that we will become a part of it for others. Just like Fadi was for me. Just like Jesus was for so many throughout the gospel. Just like we are for others.
I met an Arab-Palestinian youth from Bethlehem named Fadi. He was born on the wrong side the separation wall. The youth on the other side of the wall enjoy life comparable to Canadians the same age. Fadi lives with very little that brings laughter and joy. However, he does live with too much tension: the kind we can’t even imagine here in Canada. The day that we met with him Israeli fighter jets flew overhead towards Syria. The military tension was starting to boil over and everyone knew it. Their political, religious, social, economic, and military realities are so complicated and heated that one can’t help wonder how they have any hope at all. And so I asked this young boy, “Do you wish you were on the other side of this wall?” And this young Fadi, between the ages of my own two sons, said, “No. I wish the wall was not there. Maybe one day. But for now, I have my family and my friends and we have fun. Even on this side.”
Miraculous things happen all around us through the lives of people who do something to honour and add to the life of another person. Don’t wait for the miracle to come to you. Live the miracle that God is working around you right now. It is only by living it that we will become a part of it for others. Just like Fadi was for me. Just like Jesus was for so many throughout the gospel. Just like we are for others.
RSS Feed
