Mama Bear Protects Her Cubs

This weekend we went to the Ankara City Zoo. I'm not a huge fan of the place, as I find the condition of many of the animals to be...um...sad. While I realize that animals, such as giraffes, should be out roaming the African grasslands instead of being behind a fence in a man made habitat, they really shouldn't be behind bars in a 30ft X 30ft man made habitat, with barely a tree in sight and hardly enough grass to be considered grass. Yeah, sad.

Anyway, we went with our Faroese friends, whose daughters, like our boys, have blonde hair and blue eyes. That means they also stick out like sore thumbs, as the majority of the Turkish population naturally have dark hair and dark eyes. Sure, you can occassionally see Turks with blue eyes, or naturally "dirty blonde" hair, or even red hair. But they are the exception. 

So, Eli and his blonde, Faroese friend were riding in the wagon as we pulled up to take a look in the hippo tank, when something really awkward happened;       

 A huge group of school kids circled the wagon and began snapping photos of them.

I'm not kidding.

My kid was more fascinating to this group of kids than the hippo.

 

I didn't snap any photos of the group surrounding the wagon because I was too busy standing close by, making sure that awkward gawking didn't turn into mean jeering and joking. But, I did happen to snap this photo of the group approaching and this little girl video-ing my son. 

   

So. Strange.

This is a great example of something that I struggle with as I raise my kids in this foreign land. It's likely that Eli and Noah will never ever ever blend in when walking down a Turkish street. It's likely that they will always be gawked at. It's likely that they will always receive unwanted, possibly negative, attention because they are different. And let's be honest, what mother wants that for her child?

Not me.

But, I'm slowly learning that there's not much I can do to make them blend in here. And, really, it's not my job anyway. While they will always feel like foreigners in Turkey, my job is to make sure they know that they are not foreigners when it comes to Christ's family. 

The book of Ephesians explains it best when it says (2:11 -13) "¹¹ Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— ¹² remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ." And then later (vs.19&20), " ¹⁹Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 

That makes me want to shout, "AMEN!"