the biggest barrier

Since I got back from my six week visit to the States, I've had a lot to process, and basically no time to process it.

Things seem very different here, yet they are very much the same. I wonder how that can be except that the one constant here is change. People coming and going, governments changing, holidays happening. I'm surrounded by people celebrating Biblical feasts and other customs that, although I am learning about them, still feel so foreign to me. It's not really a feeling that I can label as "good" or "bad," just "different." I feel as if I just walk through it all as this constant outsider, watching life happen all around, but not actually being a part of it.

I think it's the language barrier. I know a little Hebrew; just enough to get myself into trouble, and more than enough to miss out on a lot. The other day, I went to catch the bus after work. One Number 8 passed before I could get to the stop, so I knew it would be another 30 minutes at least. It turned out to be 40 minutes and when it finally came, it was a single, not double, bus and it was so full that the driver wouldn't let any of us on. So after another 30 minutes, it finally came and I even got a seat... next to a lady that had just bought fresh bread. I hadn't eaten in quite a while and as hungry as I was, I contemplated asking her if she would take ten shekels for a piece of that heavenly smelling stuff. I didn't ask.

We were stuck in traffic and hardly moving because of the holiday, and I just felt like crying. Poor, poor, pitiful, hungry me. Wah. Then about half way home, six mentally handicapped boys got on the bus. They were loud and I could tell that some of the passengers were annoyed, but my heart started to swell with joy. I recognized two of them as my neighbors--brothers that I have been praying for. A couple of days earlier I was in the check out line at the grocery store and they were behind me. They only had two things of sour cream and a small bag of coconut (no clue, so don't ask), so I let them go in front of me. One handed the lady a little plastic bag with some change in it, and though I couldn't understand the Hebrew, I figured it wasn't quite enough when she set aside one sour cream and the coconut... I managed to gesture to her and somehow communicate that I would pay for it. And giggling shyly, they left with their groceries. I prayed for them all the way home and then at various times throughout the day. How God must love those special boys--I could just feel His heart for them.

So there they were again, on the bus. They were having a blast, and I think I must have been grinning from ear to ear, and part of the time laughing out loud. The lady across the aisle from me was laughing with me, and then she said something in Hebrew. I told her that I didn't understand that much Hebrew, and in English, she said that was too bad, that I was really missing out. The comment didn't rob me of my joy, but it definitely brought home the fact that I am missing out on a whole lot. I simply have to learn more.

Today is Simchat Torah, the day that the Jewish people celebrate the giving of God's word to Moses. They dance with it and party and sing and carry the scrolls around... How beautiful! I love how they love God's word. When they come into a home, or leave it, they kiss their fingers and then touch the mezzuzah that holds His word on the door frame. I truly love God's word, but have never really displayed my affection in a physical way like they do. I think I've been missing out. So, to celebrate Simchat Torah this year, I went and bought a new Hebrew/English Bible. This morning I started in Genesis. I could read and even comprehend the first verse in Hebrew. It made my day. I didn't get much farther, but it gives me hope. Maybe this old dog can learn a new thing, at least with the help of a very patient and loving Heavenly Father.