The Vast and Deep

Living on Turkey's Mediterranean coast makes you aware of how long the wheel of history has been turning over the world. The same violent winds blow in every winter under magnificent skies, blowing over and around so many archeological sites the government has no time to excavate them. Peoples and civilizations come and go. You and I are a little drop of water in an ocean that will still be there when we are gone.
















Myndos Gate in Bodrum, where Alexander's army fought (Source: Sunsearchinfo)

God has, well, God's view of history and human life, which is only partly knowable to us. We know that his general grace brings rain and good harvests to Turkey (Acts 14:17), a place where Turks perceive God's blessing but Christians and Jews perceive as infidel. Dates, olives and tangerines fall like rain here. The food is awesome and cheap.

There are time periods, even in Israel's history, where God doesn't seem to be doing much. People just live, enjoy life as best they can, perhaps feel after God, and pass on.

In Turkey, one can feel as if one is living in an insignificant way "between the times," in a place filled with so much history that only God is vaster and deeper. Feeling small can be a good experience, if it leads to much prayer and engaging scripture.