Lessons learned from traveling
“The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:34)
Many ask me why I travel. Why I like to spend so much time away from the things I know.
I’ll start out by blaming my parents. From an early age, they took my sister and I on trips: by car and airplane to visit family and friends. Later, they joined a travel club. It took us to Mexico, Disneyland, and Hawaii. As we grew older, the expense, and busier lives, reduced our trips, but the pull to go, never went away.
As I have spent more time in scripture, I blame my tendency to wander on God. The people in the Bible were often nomads; people sent by God to new places. Journeys, where they had to depend upon people who differed from them. God’s people, moving from exile to promise, danger to new life. Undergoing their greatest transformations as they wandered through the wilderness, with only God to provide the way.
I think God sends us on journeys, because we can get ourselves into trouble when we stay in one place for too long. Scripture repeatedly calls us to remember what it is like to be a stranger in a strange land. God wants us to remember what it is like to be without a home, to not understand the language, to be totally dependent upon the hospitality and welcome of others. For this helps us remember what our relationship with God is like and what a gift it is to be given a place in God’s creation.
St. Augustine said, “The world is a book, those who do not travel only read one page.” Traveling, I have not only gained a fuller sense of the world, but also a deeper sense of how God works in and through it all. In hearing others’ stories on vacation or through mission trips or safari in Tanzania or my most recent trip to the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, I am reminded of how connected we all are. How much we truly have in common and how God is inspiring life in small and big ways everywhere, all the time.
As an alien, visiting the amazing National Park of the Galapagos Islands locals were our guides. My Spanish has grown rusty, but the waiters, residents, and vendors patiently helped me practice. Everywhere we went, people looked you in the eye, smiled, and said hello. Riding boat taxis, we compared notes on what we had seen with travelers from other countries, laughed at our mutual disorientation on rough waters, connected through each other’s children, and gave each other a hand as we transferred from boat to dock.
This time was an invitation to see creation and God’s creatures cared for and protected. Plants and animals living without fear. Waters clear and efforts made to minimize the impact of human beings on this unique part of the world. Different people gathered around a shared love and connection with all God has made.
So, why do I travel? I travel to read more of God’s story through the stories of God’s people and creation. I travel in order to remember who I am, an alien wandering through the wilderness; rescued, but not yet in the promised land. And, I travel to remember who my neighbor is, “the one who shows mercy.” (Luke 10:37)
Traveling near or far, I pray you also remember who you are and the way of hospitality Jesus invites us to live. Amen.
Lori Morton is pastor of First Lutheran Church-Sandpoint. She can be reached at 526 S. Olive Ave., or 208-263-2048.