FEELING THE LAND UNDER YOUR FEET | |
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January 13, 2009 Deuteronomy 11:24-25 "Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend...No man will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go." There were a lot of things going through my mind today as I reflected all day long over the events of this past weekend. It was the opportunity of a lifetime to venture back to the lands where some of my ancestors once lived and the place where they once hunted and the place where they once made their home. To touch the dirt they touched and to see the mountains they saw brought more to my heart than I will ever forget as did to hear the stories from those around us that they heard from the ancestors of my people, in good times and bad times. The thrill I got to see the joy of the people of the village who only had a memorial picture in their minds of our people through the stories. There was a feeling that came to my heart to understand what my people felt as they walked the land and walked the trails that had been set before me. But as I reflected on the events of the weekend, I could not help but feel that we went as a people without a land. That what I saw before me was nothing more than a memorial of what was once ours. The thought that though we were walking and talking among the lands of our ancestors, that was all we could ever do, just walk and talk. Then I could not help but wonder, going back to the faith of our people. To believe the way they believed and practice what they practiced. To see the land as a gift from God the Creator and to believe as they believed that the land would always be ours. To understand the prosperity that came only through God the Creator and His provision. What I would do to touch a tree or a shrub and see more than a tree and a shrub, but to actually see the importance, the understanding and the knowledge of what role they played in our survival. About the land and the possession of the land, Moses wrote to his people, "Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend...No man will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go." Maybe one day we will be able to feel as Moses was instructed by God the Creator. Maybe one day we will feel the land under our feet and see the prosperity that comes when God the Creator is our God and in control of our lives. Thoughts from Robert Soto, Lipan Apache and pastor of: McAllen Grace Brethren Church The Native American New Life Center Chief of Chiefs Christian Church | |