Rome
Reflection
Well,
if I wasn’t in love with Italy before, Rome did it. The feel of Rome was quite
romantic and charming yet held so much power and history. I loved it. Walking
through the streets you could find just about every range on the spectrum when
it came to people. The amount of things to see and learn about was
overwhelming. We saw so many great works of art and architecture in such a
short amount of time, everything from the Sistine Chapel to the Pantheon to the
cool side alleys full of character. While standing in the Pantheon I had a
thought, “Here I am, some small town girl from Missouri, standing in the
Pantheon. How many things have gone down in this one building? How much history
created and how much of it affected who I am and where I am today?” The thought
continued to occur as I stood in the Colosseum, the Vatican City, and the Roman
forum ancient ruins, and the list goes on.
Some
things in Rome I was expecting and others I didn’t see coming at all and it blew
me away. For example, already knowing quite a bit about the Colosseum and what
went on there I expected to feel something crazy as I stood on the lowest level
they allow and looked up into what would have been seating for the crowds. What
would it have felt like for all those seats to be filled with people who hated
me because of my faith in the Almighty? What would have felt like to look into
the eyes of lion right before it tore me to pieces for the entertainment of
people? If I had lived in that time period, would I be one of those strong,
faithful, and courageous Christians? I sure hope so. An experience I wasn’t
expecting was the emotions that ran through me when we stood in a small dark
room deep in the ground that used to be a house church and could have been the
room the church read Paul’s Roman letter. It was a whole other world down
there. It was mind blowing to discover it below another time period and a
church that was built on top of it. As we sang to the Lord and our voices
echoed throughout I couldn’t help but smile and thank the Lord for those
Christians and their desire to search after Him. It was stirring to listen as
Robbie read some of Romans to us and I contemplated those Christians and what
life would have been like as they received this word from Paul.
Seeing
and learning about the culture in which Paul helped begin the spread of
Christianity was influential without a doubt. While sometimes it was hard to
look at the ruins and imagine the city it used to be, it still brought so much
of what I’ve learned about to life. It was interesting to compare the idea that
Paul dealt with paganism as we contend with the “alternative” lifestyle. He
faced strict religion of the Pharisees (and once was one!) that was void of
relationship with the Lord just as we wrestle with idea of relationship over
religion today. It was weighty to think about the lives of that time as we
walked through some of the catacombs of Rome and the tour guided pointed out
Christians symbols showing that Christians were buried there. People like us,
Christians like us, in a different a time and place.
Overall,
the trip was awe-inspiring and I feel like I learned and experienced a great
deal. It was one of those moments where you’re reminded that you know so little
compared to what there is to learn. It was unreal at times and obviously
something I will always remember. I thought it would be nice to sum this all up
with the one main thing I took away from the trip, but I’m not sure I can do
that. The categories of which I learned in were so wide spread: spiritual,
historical, cultural, and personal. So I’ll just end by saying that I’m so
grateful for not only our trip to Rome but also this experience in Italy all
together. I’m sure it will be impacting me for years to come.
We are waiting for another update here!! :)
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