Japan then China...

Ah! It has been three days since my last post. My apologies. Well, hopefully I will soon get into a more regular routine of posting.

So a bunch of us went out to eat Sushi after church on Sunday. 'Ok', you say, 'That's nice'. Ah, but this was my first time, my blogger friends! Ok, so perhaps it is not a big deal. But, oh how adventurous I felt, delving into some spicy salmon sushi, tamporo shrimp/crab, and other interesting things... and then there was the mackerel fish I ordered. It came to me head, scales, tail and all. As adventurous as I was feeling, I felt no shame in cutting off the head and offering it to another one of our group. It helped that the food was all fully dead - or at least very still on my plate.

But what a neat experience! And then last night, we went to the Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place (in Toronto). Very cool. Somebody went through the painstaking motions of creating a dragon out of thousands of china plates, saucers, bowls, and cutlery. That would perhaps explain the $25 tickets. What did I learn... well, I learnt about panda bears, Emperor Xin, how the hot sauce at the Chinese food stand really wasn't that hot, and how willow trees are quite fun to climb. Ok. The last two items are not that culturally enlightening. But they made me smile. What is the saying? He who amuses himself is always amused? lol I dunno. Oh yes, and we also watched around $35,000 worth of display fireworks from the Canadian National Exhibition. Very beautiful.

Back to the topic, though, I really don't know what exactly it is... but other cultures/nations just fascinate me! Wow! How just eating food from a different country, or walking by colourful cultural displays of a different nation can be so incredible interesting is beyond me. God must have injected some kind of love for the nations into my DNA or something. It is rather amazing! I remember the times that I have been to church services in differet languages. How exhilarating! Something about people singing their hearts out to the Creator of the Universe in a language other than English is so very exciting! It does provoke a greater longing for my real home - my home in heaven. There, people from every tribe, nation, and tongue will together worship God and sing to Him in the largest worship gathering ever in the span of all time. That, my friends, will be very, very, very awesome. To understand and love the incredible beauty and diversity found in each people group, is to begin (and only begin) to understand just how amazingly creative our God is and how much His heart passionately beats for humanity, calling them to Himself with the truth of Jesus Christ. Wow. May we all have eyes to see the people of this world as the Lord does! Precious, special, unique, designed with purpose in mind.

God bless you, my friends. Have a wonderful day wherever you are. And enjoy other cultures whenever you can. May God show you the world as He sees it!