The Photograph

This is a repost from 2008.  I found it was I have been searching through back up disks for a file I need.  Yeah, I got side tracked.  But, it is interesting to have read and my thoughts, after having done so, follow:

I picked up the old black and white photograph again.  I must have handled it a thousand times.  I knew every feature of every face.  My Aunt stood there in her safari outfit, pith helmet pulled low to protect her from the glare of the African sun.  Beside her stood a tall African man, dressed appropriately for the situation – grass skirt, beads, and headdress.  Behind them towered a set of ivory tusks forming the supports for the village’s gate; all so white – all so faded.

I fingered the photograph and wished I had known her.  She was a missionary to Africa in the 1920’s and that is all I know about her.  For some reason I think it must have been 1924, but have no reason to think so.  So strange.

But, there are other things I know and yet should not.  I know the village was Christian and she taught there.  I know that strangers were not allowed there.  I know I would like to meet my Aunt…  Too long I have been the lone Christian.

Suddenly I realize that I could go there.  I could find this village and visit it.  They would let me in; they would welcome me.  If only my Aunt could still be there.  But that is a time yet to come.

At the time, I had thought this a very odd dream for me but in rereading it, I now understood what my mind was going through.

My father’s family, with the exception of him, are all Christians.  And my aunts, very dear people.  In my immediate family, I am the lone Christian (save for having led my grandmother to the Lord) and that spiritual loneliness often weighs heavily on me. 

I long to be in a place where I am not the lone Christian, where I can be viewed as something other than, “that religious nut”.  And, I was at an emotional, physical and mental low at the time.  Life was hard and I was feeling it.

And in my longing, I somehow knew that there would be a reunion and there would be peace in my soul, but it was still a long way ahead of me…..