A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I had opportunity to invite some friends of ours to join us for a walk through the local botanical gardens.  We couldn't have picked a better day:  temperatures in the seventies, constant sunshine, a slight breeze, beautiful flowers and verdant trees everywhere we looked.  Amidst the beauty, our friends, both of whom are Muslims from Pakistan, remarked repeatedly at how much many of the flowers resembled those they knew in their native land (they've been in the States since 1975). They added that even though they were well aware of the problems Pakistan is facing currently, they would both return for a visit if time and finances permitted.  And, they said, they would love for us to come, too!
     I hope that the four of us can follow through on this idea.  As anyone who has been overseas knows, aside from a few well publicized exceptions, rarely is a country as lawless or chaotic as Western news reports make it out to be.  To step into a culture so very different from that of the West, and to do so with people who were familiar with it, is always a treat.  Most of us become accustomed quickly to where we are and, try as we might, we often cannot avoid becoming provincial about it.  It's never easy to look beyond the moment, and it's difficult to leave the familiar
     Of course, as any adventurous person will tell us, that's the essence of discovery.  I wondered, as I watched our friends, each in turn, take time that afternoon to pray, to bow before and worship Allah as we sat together on the bank of one of the lakes in the gardens, what those passing by were thinking.  Most religious people choose to worship their god(s) in private, safely away from disapproving looks and prying eyes.  As we left the gardens, I found myself hoping that those who saw our friends worshiping and praying would perhaps come to a different conclusion about culture as well as the idea of God. The beauty of the gardens certainly spoke to the creativity of God, and our friends' decision to pray openly to Allah wonderfully affirmed the possibility of another dimension of human activity and discovery.  Although we all tend to gravitate toward the familiar, it is in its counterpart that we may find the meaning we really seek.