Feeling Purple

I’ve always kind of felt like somehow I was born with a Latina heart inside a Gringa body.  (And no, it’s not just because I can NEVER be on time :)  The first time I traveled to Latin America, I knew there was something about it that was a part of me I hadn’t met yet.  A feeling that can perhaps best be described by one of my favorite movie scenes, when the clouds break in Machu Picchu as Che Guevara sees it for the first time and says

“How can I feel such nostalgia for a world I’ve never known?”

That was meeting Latin America for me.  Which explains why I went back every opportunity I could to teach, travel, work, and now live. 

And now we live here. 

In Latin America. 

But we’re still Gringos. 

Or are we?

When we’re around a bunch of Chileans, we feel pretty Gringo.

But when we’re around a bunch of Gringos, we feel VERY Chilean. 

There are many things we love about each culture.

There are many things we just don’t understand about each culture.   Some days it’s the States.  Some days it’s here. 

I don’t understand why you need to see 3 people and have 2 receipts for a purchase of something valued less than $2.  I don’t understand why you wouldn’t greet every single person when you walk in a room.  I don’t understand how schools can just be on strike and kids not get to go for 6 months.  I don’t understand (now) every individual in a family owning their own car. 

It’s not that we’re miserable, don’t get me wrong.  But when it comes to “fitting in” anywhere, we’re learning more everyday that it’s just not gonna happen.  Ever again.  To steal a friend’s simple analogy:  “If the U.S. is red and Chile is blue, you won’t ever be either.  You will always be purple.” 

And that’s not a bad thing.

Because when you’re purple, you live out the reality every day that you’re not really home yet.  You don’t “fit in” here, in any country, because you weren’t created to.  This world is not our home, we are just passing through.   

And in the midst of God reaffirming this truth to me, He gave me this little gift this morning.  It’s when the author of Hebrews is trying to describe and define what faith is in Chapter 11:   

 ¹³All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Thank you, Father, for promising us a HOME that we were created for.