A Duck

A duck is just an idea

so powerful

it exerts a specific gravitational force,

bringing matter together

in a ducky way.

Same with that chair,

the world,

you.

If God stopped thinking of you

for a moment

you’d blow apart

into a bijillion pieces.

Roosters for Seagulls

I’m writing from the living room corner of Casa Santana, one of the two new apartments now available at VisitingPortugal.com. Spread beneath the window before me is the Rossio, which is literally the “Boardwalk” of the Portuguese version of Monopoly you may play when you stay here. In the night distance the black Tagus flows between a string of lights on its far shore and the illuminated triumphal arch, the gateway to Lisbon, in the Praça do Comércio, on its near shore. If I want to know the time I turn and look out the window to my right at the clock atop the late 19th century Moorish inspired Rossio train station.


Moon set over the Rossio station.
Find the clock.

Debbie has done another spectacular job doing everything to get these places on the map. Her decorating is charming, her negotiating culturally-sensitive yet ever-so-slightly hard-nosed. Of all the days she’s spent shopping one stood out. As she recounted the way she felt born along and directed by the Holy Spirit that day she caught herself and issued the old disclaimer one hears applied to little choices everywhere: “As if God cares about my shopping.” “As if God cares about what tie/dress I wear,” is its simplest form, but the idea grows like a B movie monster, until you hear Christians saying things like “As if God cares about what house I buy,” or “which job I choose.” Let’s settle this thing once and for all right now. Bring to mind a friend who loves you and loves to be with you. Imagine their delight when you find something really cute for your house, or the pleasure they take when you look really great. And not just really great, but really great for the occasion at hand. Not just any tie will do. This friend knows who else will be at the meeting and doesn’t want you reminding him of the tie he threw up on at his senior prom or the way his old boss used to dress. This friend delights in you. “You are IT!” this friend says when you’ve made up your mind. God cares more. You are the apple of His eye.

They took some getting used to, but one thing I’ll miss when we leave Braga is the roosters. We probably have at least half a dozen roosters within shouting distance of our house, including three or four living next door in different directions. Depending on the time of year they pretty reliably begin announcing the day between 3 and 4 a.m. I wear earplugs to take the edge off but I have become genuinely fond of their cacophonous accompaniment to my dreams. It has come to represent northern Portugal for me, which is fitting, since one of their number from a nearby town called Barcelos, rose from the dead many years ago to prove the innocence of a falsely accused man and thereby became the symbol of the region for everyone else. I’ll be trading in the Barcelos roosters for Lisbon’s seagulls, which are symbolic of plenty themselves. Their ancestors tricked about the rigging of Vasco de Gama and Ferdinand Magellan. Friends of theirs frequent Seattle. The roosters are rural and agrarian and quaint. The gulls are of the wind and the open ocean and all the places around its perimeter. I will miss the roosters, but it’s a trade I’m happy to make.

Casa Santana and Casa Travessa are within 10 meters of one another. Casa Joaquina is 500 meters uphill to the north. Walking between them half a dozen times yesterday, your VisitingPortugal.com handyman began to feel a camaraderie with the other working people of the neighbourhood; hoteliers, restaurateurs, grocers. In the years to come I hope to get to know these people and share the love of God with them. We all need it. Pleas pray it would be so.

Living with Behçet’s disease is like living in Kansas. When clouds begin to gather on the horizon you can’t help wondering whether they’ll blow over and be nothing or boil up into a twister. Both Austin and Drex have little health clouds right now. Please ask God to make them completely well.

Thank you for praying for us. The Lord bless you this week.

Stand We Will

Please pray for our family. We are a house divided. I know I mentioned in a previous Prayer and Praise Update that Debbie would be spending a lot of time in Lisbon taking care of VisitingPortugal.com business, but knowing it was coming doesn’t make it less disorienting for everyone. Debbie has been in Braga about twenty-four hours during the last two weeks. Drex seems to be holding up O.K. under the erosive effects of instability. Pray we all find our stability in Christ. Drex and I plan to drive to Lisbon with a load of furniture right after school today and stay until Sunday afternoon, which will afford us the rare opportunity of being in church together as a family, albeit an unfamiliar church. While you're praying for us, would you also ask God to direct us in choosing a Lisbon church home?
Thanks for hanging in there with us and praying for us. The Lord bless you this week.

A Wedding Story

I’d like to tell you a story that sounds like a fairy tale, but is not a fairy tale. In fairy tales things happen by magic. In this story things happen by the power of God.

What do we call it when something happens by the power of God? We don’t call it magic. What word do we use? It’s another “m” word. That’s right, miracle. We call it a miracle.

In this story a miracle happens. But miracles can be easy to miss, so you need to pay close attention to see if you can find the miracle. Here’s the story:

Once upon a time a young peasant girl watched over her grandparents’ sheep.

Here are the sheep. Here is a common wayside flower and some very small rocks.

As she watched the sheep and explored the woods and listened to her Aunt’s stories and read hundreds of articles mailed to her by her other grandparents and went about the business of being a modern young peasant girl, God spoke to her. God said, “You must leave your home and follow Me. If you do, I will bless you and keep you; I will make My face shine upon you, and I will be gracious to you; I will lift up My countenance upon you, and give you peace.”[1]

That seemed like a good deal to her, so she sold bread to raise money for her trip, mounted her noble horse Falada, and set out.

Here she is on her noble horse, Falada. You can see she is wearing armor and carrying a banner, because she was always very theatrical. The armor happens to be made of paper, but that’s another story.

God was unclear about exactly what she was supposed to do after leaving home. She interpreted that to mean she should do something unclear, so she decided to study economics.

At the same time, in a land far away, there lived a king. His was a small kingdom, but his subjects loved him because he cared for them and he was just.

Here are his subjects asking him questions. This one would like to know whether light is a particle or a wave. This one would like to know how to discover the will of God. This one would like to go to the restroom. The king will help them all. He was a good king.

From this picture, however, you may notice something interesting about the king. Can you see what it is? He doesn’t have a crown. Usually, kings have crowns. This king did not. That was O.K. with him, though. He knew he could be a good king without a crown. Sometimes the king’s friends would say, “Highness, you gotta getchoeseff a crown!” But he was content.

One day the young peasant girl, who had grown into a lovely young maiden, arrived in the kingdom. She had sold Falada to buy economics textbooks. Before she sold him, however, she discovered in his saddlebag a crown. She carried the crown in her backpack along with her books.

The king liked what he saw. He had never taken much interest in economics, but gradually he became more and more interested.

One day God said to the king, “I’d like to give you a crown.”

“Maybe a crown wouldn’t be such a bad idea,” said the king.

“I want to give you a crown,” repeated God, “but to receive this crown you must give up everything, even your very life, and become a servant, and wait upon Me.”

“I’d like to think that over,” said the king.

“Do you not know?” asked God. “Have you not heard? My judgments are unsearchable and My ways are beyond finding out.” [2]

The maiden placed the crown upon the king’s head.[3] In that instant both of them disappeared. Where they had been there appeared an eagle. The eagle spread his wings and cried for joy. Then he rose upon the wind that rolled beneath him and he was off. [4]

Did anyone notice the miracle? What happened at the end of the story? That’s right, the king and the maiden turned into an eagle and soared off into the sky.[5] Very good, you didn’t miss the miracle. Now I want you to pay close attention to everything else you see today, so you notice any other miracles as well.

[1] Numbers 6:24-26
[2] Isaiah 40:28, Romans 11:33
[3] An excellent wife is the crown of her husband. Proverbs 12:4.
[4] The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
[5] The two shall become one. Matthew 19:5. Those who wait upon the Lord . . . will mount up with wings like eagles. Isaiah 40:31.