Unexpected Life
In Madrid the cold months are full of life. It is one of the strangest sensations about my new home city. I have been here long enough to forget that I am speaking Spanish. Long enough to think tortilla de patata feels welcome and familiar. But the sights of green life in Winter still confuse me. I have been doing a little informal research, and it seems this life is present because we don’t usually dip below 32° - even in our coldest month.
My presence in this city is a little like the green life of Winter. People are a little surprised when they notice me and they try to figure out what’s going on with me. Some, but not many, Americans move to Madrid. Less start a family here and live a simple Bretheren in Christ lifestyle in the middle of the city. People react like I do to the Winter plants: “It feels nice to see this, but why is it happening?”
The first times I saw my park full of life in the cold months, I was likely hurrying somewhere or other. I looked at them funny and continued on my way. After a few times of seeing them I started to tell myself, almost out loud, that they were strange. There was life where I expected death.
The first time my neighbors see me, they look at me funny. They are in a rush to somewhere. After they see me a few times, they start to talk to me. They notice life where they expected death.
Jeni and I are living this process in our neighborhood and in our work connections. We have been able to shine Christ on the lives of those around us when they notice life where there should be death. It has looked different for different people. We brought many to meet our church family at celebrations and hear God’s truth from them. One neighbor will not come to church but never stops asking about it. We are telling him about Jesus in our highrise.
We are about to get ready for one of my favorite celebrations of life among death. In April we will host our second annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Our friends and neighbors had a blast initiating the tradition last year.
Last year Jeni and I invited a bunch of people from outside of church. We bought little candies and a ton of plastic eggs. We hid the eggs all over our favorite spot in Casa de Campo park and sent the neighbor kids on a frantic search to find and gather them. We had a dozen that corresponded to key parts of the Resurrection account and we gave out prizes as kids turned them in. We shared about God’s decision to take on flesh, be killed, and arise in power! Life where there should be death.
Being surprised by finding life is a beautiful experience and the life God cultivates among the death of this world is much greater than a few Winter plants. I am thrilled that He has brought me into It! “For Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.” “In Christ all will be made alive”. (NIV 1 Cor 15)
