The Original Traveler

I have been traveling A LOT recently. It is full-on summer here in Argentina, meaning schools are closed and many business owners are on vacation. It seems that most of the country takes off for a week or two for vacations in January. As I've mentioned previously, all of my housemates are college students, so they are home for vacations. Because I don't want to stay alone in my house, I have been keeping very busy with a visit from my family, a week camping with youth from local churches, and visits with my housemates' families. I've been on the road since the day after Christmas! And while I love to travel, it definitely has its challenges.

My clothes smell funny. They're all pretty clean, but one pair of kind-of-smelly shoes and the whole bag smells weird. My hip still hurts from the week I slept on the ground/concrete floor. There are some friends I haven't seen in a month and I miss my bed. I've experienced plenty of miscommunications and spent more than one night on a bus.

Story time: A couple of weeks before I left Columbus, Dana, Chelsea, and I met an actual band of train jumpers. Like they ride on freight trains and also play in a band together. Dana and I accidentally made eye contact with one of them when we were waiting for Chelsea in the parking lot at Jacob's Porch and he climbed down the side of a building from the deck he was sitting on to talk to us. He asked us about Jacob's Porch and faith in general. Then he sang us a song he wrote about how Jesus was the original traveler. He sang about how no one ever thinks about how sore Jesus' feet were. How he had calluses and dirt on his face.

Now, I'm pretty sure Jesus wasn't the original traveler. People had been traveling for a very long time before Jesus got here. But I think it is important to remember that Jesus WAS a traveler; he knows the struggles of living out of a bag (probably, right? like Jesus had to have had a bag) and the uneasiness of being in a culture different from the one in which he was raised. He knows what it's like to leave everything you've known behind you. He's experienced the awkward conversations where neither person is sure if they have been fully understood by the other. Jesus probably had a sore hip at some point. It's cool to know that God gets it.

I want you to also know that I've had way more beautiful experiences than challenging ones in the last month. I got to show some of the beauty of Argentina to my family. I made new friends, new crafts, and braided hair at camp. I've been able to find time to rest and read books. I've been able to soak up the Argentine sun and accidentally swallow a good amount of Argentine seawater at the beach. I've gotten to spend time with and experience the generous hospitality of my housemates' families. They've been my personal chauffeurs and personal tour guides and I couldn't be more grateful.

I like that God knows about these things too. God struggles with us and God is joyful with us. God knows about sore hips and God knows about good hospitality. So these days I'm pausing to be thankful for movement and for those who are moving alongside of me.