What Patrushka Saw: New Jersey
Near Locust Grove Cemetery, Memorial Day
Locust Grove Cemetery, Memorial Day
Locust Grove Cemetery, Memorial Day
Hanging Out, Ken Lockwood Gorge
Trout Fishing, Ken Lockwood Gorge
Butterflies, Ken Lockwood Gorge
Old Springhouse, River Road
Labels: Across America, Photos by Patrushka
posted by Christopher Newton at 10:32 AM
7 Comments:
I just re-read your "Promised Land" post from Nov.30. I read it when it was new, but I somehow missed some things that came to mind as I looked at your bride's photos. Secondly, in the Memorial Day sermon yesterday, the notion of promised Land came up also.
Pastor Joseph at our church grew up in the projects in Detroit and went into the Army Chaplaincy in the beginning of VietNam and stayed ther until 1978 when he retired a Colonel to be promoted to General. He left it because he had a vision to be a preacher in the desert of America, to lead people into that desert and seek God's word. His notion of promised land comes from seeing fighting and death and war and pestilence up-close. He's known poverty and, finally, success in these United States. He loves the Lord and he's been blessed. In turn, he blesses the congregation beyond belief. Spiritually, maybe this is the promised land. Or, rather, this is as promised a land as any when God is your guide and friend.
But then the parallel thinking with Israel comes in. No, you were correct, God promised the land to Abraham and his descendents for eternity. So, that strip of land on the Mediterranean is promised and that promise can't be revoked by human hands. But then neither can we expect to usurp that promise and make it ours for the United States, on the North American continent.
That piece of spiritual promised land that God gives us, the one I referred to in Pastor Joseph's sermon yesterday, is the promised land of the soul, flowing with milk and honey. It's the Jerusalem of the heart, not made or trod by men. It's the place where God tabernacles.
So as you travel, looking for a home, realize that you're already there wherever you are.
That first picture of the cemetery, the one with the trees and the shrubbery...how beautiful! So loaded with emotion, I teared up a little before I even realized it was a graveyard.
Hey thanks Paula. Sorry I haven't dropped by your blog lately - I haven't been visiting anybody's blogs lately because of traveling. But I read the one about your sis - so powerful and the stuff of a novel. Actually, I did write you a note about my reactions but I think it got lost in the ether.
Folks, if you're not checking out Paula's blog I Remember yet, do. It's worth reading.
Gorgeous pics! They're all so nice I couldn't even try and pick a favorite ... hope you both are enjoying your travels ... thanks for sharing your journey with all us folks in Bloggerland =)
Mom, those cemetary pictures and the one of the springhouse are really beautiful. They remind me of the photos in the "One Day in the Life of ...(NJ, Russia, etc)" books
Ivan Illych.
I caught the reference as I had to read both of the following books sophomore year in high school. The reference made me chuckle. However, It's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denosovich" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and "The Death of Ivan Illych" by Leo Tolstoy. Also that year was William Falkner's "As I Lay Dying", and Shakespeare's Macbeth. Such cheerful reading. Amazing that the whole class didn't end up jumping off a bridge.
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