On my trip to Africa I got to visit the National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo. Unfortunately when I was younger I took pride (always wrong) in squeezing maximum working value out of every trip (perhaps of some value, but not balanced.) In fact once, when I had returned to Taiwan, a friend asked me in an elevator, what are you especially wanting to see while you're back in Taiwan (or something like that), and I only came up with, "I'm just here to visit people." Since then, God has challenged me on that--of course I enjoyed things in Taiwan, whether as small as a favorite restaurant or a favorite bike route, which we did enjoy on that trip, or the chance to snorkel we didn't make time for.
So I saved a few bucks and flew back in the middle of the night from Cairo Sunday-Monday instead of trying to get out sooner, and there I was by myself for a whole day in the middle of one of the world's great cities, with arguably the world's oldest collection of antiquities.
The newest things in the huge collection dated from about the time of Christ! One of my favorites was an actual ancient chariot. (There were four on display from King Tut's tomb.) The chariots of ancient Egypt were famous. In the Bible they were first mentioned in Genesis 50:4, and Solomon had a large collection (2 Chronicles 1:14). As an erstwhile cyclist, I could see how fast they were, and what game changers they would have been in a world where everyone walked.
At Easter, we talk about being wrapped in linen and laid in a tomb. I saw bodies preserved like this--using 300 meters of linen cloth for one body! For me it definitely brought history alive--and reminded me of how small a fraction of history we occupy.
As I try to somehow reflect on a trip (well, actually two trips since I wrote last), and on our life apart from the trips, these images of lives and deaths linger in my mind (as well as many bad puns, but that's another story.) Life is like that, we laugh, we cry, we live, and we die. It is the receiving and losing of meaningful relationships that occupies so much of our lives, and in the conversations we have, like the museum of antiquites, it is the joys and sorrows of those relationships that matter so much.
What I saw in that museum was almost all there after so many years because people wanted to preserve and remember, in monuments and tombs, what they considered great and valuable. Of course, it doesn't look now like they imagined it might. The rock King Darius used to commemorate his great triumphs and world conquest sits unread by people who (I assume) mainly think, "Wow, that's an old rock, and what a lot of work to make all those marks on it." The tomb of King Tut (the one not raided long ago for its treasures) now sits disassembled with not only the items on display, but also the coffins opened. For some of Egypt's greatest, like King Ramses II, even their linen wrapped skeletons sit in clear plexiglass boxes for any tourist from across the world who pays the cost of a meal to wander by and gaze upon. These mummies had originally been encased in multiple ornate coffins, one outside the next, then placed in ornate gold-plated or stone boxes, with organs just as carefully preserved separately, and ceremoniously buried in monuments so big that these pyramids still remain as wonders of the ancient world. Yet all this is now just an exhibit for tourists, students, and historians.
Back home, we are reminded as we walk alongside Laura's parents as they age, that even long life is mortal (and they've outlived all the Pharoahs in the museum!) Our goal is to make each day a good one, as God gives us grace.
And perhaps, alongside this travel snippet, that is something we can take away--for us to make each day a good day, as God gives grace, for ourselves and for others.
I'll attach two pictures--pyramids and the sphinx, as seen from the nearest Pizza Hut, and a chariot, that hasn't been used for thousands of years. Well, okay, since you might be interested, here is a link to the hundreds of pictures I took at the museum. After all, pictures in a museum can be shared freely--I even paid $5 extra for a photography pass! But seriously, may you find joy in your journey, wherever it takes you today, and comfort, for those burdens that are challenging or even impossible to carry.
Steve and Laura
PS It was a week later that some Egyptians lost their lives as they worshiped on Palm Sunday. I am grateful that I was kept safe in my journeys, but grieve with those for whom that has not been true.
Steve and Laura Spinella
US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
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