Thursday, June 14, 2012

brief thoughts from a wandering pastor

It's been just over a week that we've been experiencing South Africa: from the privilege and pleasure of a game lodge in Sabi Sands to the pain of racism remembered in Soweto.   It's all a bit much - over-stimulation both in joy and thanksgiving for God's amazing creation, and in humbling realization of how entrenched our world still is in keeping a gap between races, genders, nations, even hemispheres (it's very disconcerting to hear that south is "up"!)

From our safari experience, I learned that nothing is what it seems or what is expected: what sounds like a lion's growl is actually an elephant; what sounds like a bird call is a zebra; and Egyptian goose is actually a duck....

From our tracker Martin, I learned that he is like God; he will just NOT give up.  If he thinks there's a leopard to be found, and it's hiding where it thinks no-one can see it (and I certainly couldn't), then Martin will persevere while we sip coffee in the cold dawn, until he finds it.  Ironically, that morning my daily reading was from Genesis, where Adam and Eve hide themselves from God!

From Soweto I learned that I stand in that awful human tradition for better or worse; may it be for better.

From the fact that my camera battery died out in the bush, and I couldn't snap pictures, I learned that pictures can be bought or cut out of magazines,  but the experience of a lion about two feet away cannot be captured.   Just be here now, Margaret.

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