At the time of this writing, I'm sitting in the ICE train heading back to Brussels, after spending more than two weeks in Germany. I'm thankful that I could do this journey, in spite of Covid. Of course I had to undergo testing again as well as a five day quarantine after arrival, but I could spend this time of confinement working from my parents place.
As far as the encounter with my loved ones went, it was almost like pre-Covid times, as most of my family members are vaccinated by now; and thus, especially my mother and my aunt are not so concerned about my dad and grandmother anymore. So we gathered without masks, hugging each other like in the past. Of course this was much better than Christmas, when we were sitting there with our masks on, not even sharing a meal together.
I also spent a few days in our holiday apartment in the Black Forest, which was nice and peaceful. At the beginning of last week, I travelled on to spend some days with dear friends in Thuringia, Eastern Germany. We had a very blessed time together, although it was a little more rainy than we had wished for.
As I'm writing this blog, I can see the Wartburg Castle near Eisenach from the train. This brings back nice memories when I was able to visit this place about five years ago. Yesterday, we went to a beautiful nature resort with a lake, and while the children were throwing little stones into the water, Alberto shared with us an illustration about these stones making circles in the water, which become bigger and bigger. I was just contemplating that the work of Martin Luther also made a big impact until this very present time. I think this man had no clue back then what far reaching influence he would have in the world. But in a similar way, we may not be aware what kind of impact our words and actions can make within our sphere of influence. May the Lord help us to continuously make circles that become bigger and bigger!
Some impressions of the Black Forest
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