Trees on Victory Base Near the airport. The things under the trees is creates of bottled water.
Happy Epiphany to all,
A lot has happened since I wrote you just over a week ago – Christmas. For us Catholics it has been a two week period of 4 Masses. I mention that because I was able to Skype (video conference) with my family on Christmas Eve (their time)/Christmas Day (my time). In the conference I asked my 6-year old son what he liked best about Christmas so far (he was just returning from a large extended family Christmas celebration). My wife chimed in and said that, “Josh liked mass the most.” At this he turned to my wife (I had a great view of this on the Skype camera) and said, “Are you kidding … That was the worst part.” Waiting and sitting still is a big challenge for a 6-year old. At the same time Josh will be the first to tell me that the whole reason for the Christmas Season is the celebration of Christ’s birth. How ironic?
Picture of the plane we took from Kuwait to Iraq.
And irony seems to the theme for life here in Iraq. It is still a desert land, but the one thing that most hit me upon getting off the plane was seeing plants and trees everywhere. This was different that the barrenness of Kuwait. Immediately the thought that, “Water is Life” came into my head. For years I have heard priests and theologians tell me that the water imagery in the gospel is a natural for those in the Middle East – it really is.
In the desert only the toughest survive. Life is a constant struggle with the land. But with water, civilization is possible. Cities are possible and trying to unite as humans in community is possible (of course as witnessed to by the war – we do not always live up to the fullness of our human potential).
If water is the imagery for God … the importance of God’s place in our life is critical. Of course we in the Northern Indiana can often take water (and God) for granted. I think was doing that just today. My original intent for the blog was to write about all of the things happening here at the US Embassy in Iraq (which is where I live and work) – this is where the elite of the US Government and Iraqi Government meet to discuss and work out the details of how billions and billions of dollars and human resources will be used.
Sounds important, but then I went to mass and realized that the details of the war can wait. Today is the Feast of the Epiphany – The Feast of the Three Kings. An important idea in the feast of the three kings is that they were the first non-Jews to know Christ. In Catholic thought, their journey is the beginning of God opening a personal relationship to whole world and to all human beings.
Right now I am about 700 miles due East of Bethlehem. At mass it was noted that it is possible and likely that that Three Kings passed through (or came from) Baghdad as they followed the Star in the sky. It is possible that those early Christians (Christ Followers) stepped through the very land where I am. I find that incredibly humbling … to be physically connected to the beginning of faith in Christ.
So there I am feeling connected to the birth of Christ and we sing “What Child is This.” As I sang along I heard the line “This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard …” At the beginning only shepherds guarded. The irony is that I am guarded by much more. Thousand of armed Iraqi, US and others guard the area around the embassy. There are cement barricades everywhere and Army attack helicopters continually fly over head. I am even attending mass in uniform.
The striking irony of how God brings peace and how we as humans bring (or don’t bring) peace was not lost. At this stage in the war, the main focus of effort is on building up the government and community of Iraq so that it can be peaceful without US troops. I look forward to the day when it needs only shepherds.
Continue to pray for peace in the warn torn lands of our world.
Peace,
Chris Culver
