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| It's a whole 'nother ball game! |
What a wonderful and unique experience. This place is so rich in culture and hospitality. Casa blanca "white house" is literally made up of all white buildings. Marrakesh is entirely a peachy pink color that blends in with the local landscape. On the outskirts of cities and in rural areas you will find shepherds watching over their sheep like in biblical times and nomands wandering from place to place and camping out in caves. During the summer people sleep on their roofs as temperatures spike. In rural Berber areas women will get up as early as 5am to work the fields, continung with household duties preparing bread and meals.. as well as coffee and tea thorughout the day. Meals are communal which I appreciate, and take place around a small table. You sit on the floor around a table and with your right hand only eat what is set before you. Men usually do as they please throughout the day.. while women do most of the work. 
I believe many of you who have been to rural places like this can relate to how culturally rich they are.. and how they help you to understand the context surrounding the things written in the Bible. All of the sudden, Jesus' teaching on the harvest, shepherds watching over their sheep, on being equally yoked... come to life. Specifically for me.. one thing that really hit home was when I learned about and even witnessed a nomad wandering through the hills. They go from place to place... are never stationary.. and most of the time without a home. They spend the night in caves. They are looked down upon by society. They are outcasts.
How fitting that as followers of Jesus.. The Great Shepherd of the Sheep.. we are to consider ourselves in this world.. but not of it.. As Hebrew 11 says, many men and women acknowledged for their faith in God were outcasts..admitted that they were "foreigners and nomads here on earth". God goes on to say that people who say these things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from.. they could have gone back.. but these people were looking forward to a heavenly homeland.. and He takes great delight that these people call Him their God.. and is preparing a place for them with Him in heaven forever.
I can tell you one thing-- my travels thus far have really helped me to relate to these "foreigners and nomads". Wandering from place to place.. without a place to call my own. I know that this journey on earth is only temporary.. fleeting. I am so grateful for the people that I have encountered and the destinations that I have been... but I realize that not one place on this earth can even compare to my "real" home. Not even San Diego. I love it, but it is not my home. Heaven is my home.
It's is not comfortable being a nomad. Living out of a suitcase. Traveling from place to place. Sometimes alone. But it is so comforting knowing that wherever I go, and whatever I do, God is with me. I am not alone. I am not rejected in His eyes. And that He holds me.. and looks after me.
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