God created humans in His image to love and adore Him back,
but we return His love with rebellion as we live contrary to His will for us. So,
even though the image we bear is tainted or distorted by sin, every person
still bears it and that reveals itself in many ways.
A couple of the most foundational characteristics of God are
love and beauty. He loves in community (always has and always will) and His
beautiful creativity demands worship and praise.
Humans are designed to worship something – and every human
does. On the whole, everyone worships themselves, but that can lead to
secondary worshipping of some enjoyment, some person or some pursuit.
The goal of missions is to bring people back into the proper
state of worshipping God as John Piper has pointed out.
But even cultures who, in large part, claim to be anything
but interested in worshipping the Creator, can’t help but show fingerprints of
that Designer in their customs.
Here are a couple beautifully interesting customs in Uruguay
that can point to who God is and wants us to be.
Yerba Mate: Community
Mate is a strong herbal tea that is much more than a
beverage. It’s served in a gourd and sipped through a straw called a bombilla. There’s etiquette and unsaid
expectations when drinking mate but a couple interesting things to point out:
- While you or I might meet up and have our two separate coffees while conversing, a single gourd of mate is shared among an entire group. The owner will fill the gourd with water from her thermos that she carries around and offer it to her friend who then slurps up the entirety in one gulp and hands it back to be refilled for the next person.
- While there is great divide between generations in terms of what they do (younger people tend to live life very differently than older people do). In Uruguay, virtually everyone does this!
For me, the value of individualism in the US versus the
value of the collective in Uruguay can be seen in the simple way we take
our beverages when we’re with people. Both cultural values can point us to
aspects of how God would like us to live as His people, but life is to be shared
quite a bit more than we’re used to where I’m from. Love isn’t about keeping my
bubble, my toys and my life to myself. The emphasis is on sharing what’s
important – ultimately time - with people.
Sunset Applauding: Praising Beauty
A very typical Uruguayan pastime is to grab the mate and
head down to the beach to watch the sunset with your friends and family. The
sunsets are phenomenal here as they often involve recoloring the sky in the
west, north, east and south! What’s intriguing is that Uruguayans will often
applaud the sunset! That’s right – a people that is predominantly atheist and
agnostic praises the beauty in the sky with outward expressions. “Who are they clapping
for?” we might ask. I’m not sure what their answer would be, but their
appreciation of something that, in reality, God did in His creativity, inspires
me to praise His works more consistently.
So people who, on the whole do not believe, have unknowingly
taught me a lot about enjoying community and enjoying God in that community. It’s
inspired me to live more for the group than for my individual comfort. I’m
challenged to stop to notice God’s hand and give Him the praise He deserves. I
love witnessing things in other cultures that give different perspectives to
add to who I am in order to be more of who God wants me to be.
