Like Children

Bonjour.  Au revoir.  Merci.  Fromage.  Chocolat chaud.  Eglise.  Oui.  Non.  Soleil.  Pomme.  Raclette.  Maison.  Voiture.  Chat.  

We are like toddlers, knowing only a few random words that have no obvious link.  And the words we do know, we cannot speak correctly.

Even things we knew well in the United States we cannot do well in France - things like driving (in France, cars coming from the right have the right of way), banking, shopping, even greeting new friends (we're still adjusting to the whole kissing one another on the cheek thing, but we'll save that topic for another day).  

We are like children.  Vulnerable.  Slow.  Easily confused.  Easily frustrated.  Dependent.  Sensitive.  

As we enter our fourth week of looking for an apartment to call home, there is a constant internal battle.  What is necessary?  What is important?  What is simply a want?  In the United States - in English - we could enter a rental agency, describe what we are looking for, have a candid conversation, and leave with a clear understanding of the situation concerning us and available properties.  In France - in French - this is far from our reality.  We must take a friend and translator with us to the agency.  Though we've communicated with them about our desires, it's impossible for a translator to be as sincere as we ourselves want to be with the agent; after all, it's not their desires or their future home.  Add to the mix the difference in cultural communication, and it is much more complicated for us to understand.   

We are like children.  

And though our hosts continue to be gracious, assuring us that it is OK to continue looking for the perfect apartment, we are anxious to be adults.  We are anxious to live on our own, to make decisions independently of others, to make a schedule fit for us, to settle in one place for more than a few weeks, to establish some roots, make friends, and start language school.

But we are like children.  Maybe we should try to embrace it....

"And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, 'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.'"  Matthew 18:2-4