Kaleidoscope

Life is like a kaleidoscope, a constantly changing cascade of colorful shapes enlivened by light. “Beautiful form to look at” are the Greek words strung together to form “kaleidoscope.”  As time twists the dial, new patterns + beauty reveal themselves: Gifts from the Creator, but hard to hold onto. Once some part of it comes into a little bit of focus, it shifts into something differently gorgeous, because that is how big + inexhaustible God is. It is stunning + humbling; confusing + yet somehow okay + alright to experience the changing + new forms, so different than the comforts + familiarity of before. A recent trip to Spain + Morocco brought this idea to life again and again in whimsical wonder, twinkling + twirling before me.

You make more sense of things with repetition, experiencing more diverse data-points, + seeing things from different angles, like a shifting kaleidoscope. The world + its ways + God’s plans for it are so much bigger, longer + more complex than at first look. Stop to see, turn the dial + take in the all the shades from a different angle as it dances before you.  Although I’m often not aware of the purpose my journeys have at their outset, my travels are gifts from God to experience the different shades and sides of Him throughout times + places + cultures. I try to hold my hands, mind + heart wide open to receive what comes to me. I eagerly collect precious pebbles, bright buttons + shiny shards along the way that fill the kaleidoscope’s tube, at God’s good guiding, trusting that He will help sort it all out in His faithfulness. He shows me how faith in Him functions in all places, even though they are shaded quite differently.  I am ripened + refined by traveling as He twists more of Himself into my life, tethering me to Truth.

My quirky interests + nerdy loves get me onto the plane with a direction + idea of the shimmering slices I might collect, but God typically blows me away with the sheer depth + vastness of what He actually gives. My recent discovery of Tahir Shah’s memoirs of living in + traveling throughout Morocco fueled my rather inexplicable previous fascination with this country. The culture is steeped in story: oral traditions passed down to teach generosity, kindness + bravery.  So much story is told in the buildings, streets, food, traditions + language of a place. Before I knew it, I was a bundle of nerves on a ferry crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in search of a Moroccan mosaic.

The sands of the Sahara, the food of Fez + the awe of the Atlas plunged into my kaleidoscope. The smiles in the eyes of new friends as they understood my lingual attempts to connect slipped into the cylinder too, but the kaleidoscope was filled fullest as I was mesmerized by the magic of Marrakech’s main square: the Jmma El-Fnaa. It’s an ancient open-air area where God would not let the Almohad’s build a mosque. Since antiquity, this place has been a trading post, but so unbelievably much more too; a place where diverse community is tethered together tighter through story-telling, music, fair-like flair, sharing food, and the flavorful stew of humanity. Words cheapen this place. It simply MUST be felt. It is a true kaleidoscope – never ever the same twice as the world wends through it. As the sun sunk over the Koutoubia Mosque there, casting crimsons + pinks everywhere, I absorbed the energy of the centuries of culture and the faithful God who has been shining the shades of His goodness and love there forever. Trust in Him thrives in all times + territories.  His infinite sides + shades twinkle true + taut in our treacherously tenuous world; they steady my steps.