A foreigner

"But our citizenship is in heaven..."

Philippians 3:20

Growing up I lived in the same town for 24 years. We moved houses once when I was 5, but ww moved within the same city. I grew up with my relatives nearby, so I had the same friends and same faces around me all my life.

Then I got married and we have basically moved every two and a half years since then. At first we moved to the north where people had a strong repulsion for people from the South (i.e. me). Life was completely different, people would often notice my diferent accent. We lived in three different towns in the North and every time I felt like a foreigner: I was always the one with the diffrent accent( it was a mix of Southern and American and trying to get Northern!!), I ate differently (not polenta or frico, more olive oil than butter), and I missed tipical food from my area, the summers at the beach, missed the Sea...

Then, after eight years we moved to Sicily and I thought, "I am going to be in the South again and hopefully near the Sea." (it still took 15-20 minutes to be able to go to the Sea or go to the beach and here there was not sand but lava rocks...and the water was cold).

Once again I was a foreigner, I still had a different accent and a different culture.

Once at school I was bringing Hannah to her class and one of the school supervisors told me something that sounded like this:" blah bla blablah blah blah." 

Yup, I couldn't understand a word of what he said.

One lady looked at me and laughed.

I asked: "what's the matter?"

"He told you, you could not bring your daughter to the class" she said.

I thought "he should have said it in a way that I could understand it!"

The truth is that I was a foreigner!

This week has marked my one year of being in the States...again another language, another culture.

There are times when, in speaking to locals I repeat the same things a few times before the question mark on their faces disappears. Times were I have to say my sentence with the simplicity of a 5 year old, in order to be understood.

I am weird when I vacuum my floor every day, or if they see that in my cupboard I have a tons of pasta boxes. I am weird when I talk and make jokes!

Again I am a foreigner!

I would love for that time that we can settle somewhere and not be or feel like a foreigner anymore. At the same time the Lord has used this image in my life to remind me that I am a foreigner from spiritual prospective. When I talk about Jesus, to the World I am weird, I am crazy. When I live love, grace, forgiveness I am crazy.

When I live for an eternal hope, I am crazy. My faith is crazy.

My language is a foreign laguage to this World, my culture is different because based on the Word of God!

I can live in every part of the World but I will always bring with me an imprint of where I belong and I will always miss my homeland.

The same is true for our spiritual life, let's always bring the imprint of who we are in Christ where ever we are, always looking forward to the time we will be in our heavenly home.