My 'Weekend Word' Reflection for Radio Wales this morning went something like this: Yesterday I visited the National Museum in Cardiff for their exhibition on the Origins of Wales. It's a captivating journey that takes you through the land of our fathers and our mothers, beginning with the bones of one family who are now 230,000 years old. Walking through the years from then 'til now, I was struck not so much by the differences between us, as the similarities. People in every age have struggled for the same basic things: food and shelter for their families, trade and security for their tribe, art and other symbols created as reflections on their patterns of living and indeed their spiritual beliefs: these things appear again and again in the origins of any nation and Wales is no different.
But this national exhibition managed to get personal as well. I wa
s fascinated by the reconstructed faces of four ancient Welsh skulls. Who were these people? In another life would we have been friends ... might we even have been relatives? Of course they say, go back to your roots in any family tree and it is not long before you uncover criminality, madness and even worse.
Searching for truth in our origins, in the family or the nation is always risky, especially when its personal and if it gets spiritual.
So I left the exhibition wondering what might happen if this weekend I did some archaeology on my Soul, what if you or I dug down through the layers of who we are what might any of us uncover half hidden in our hearts?
Of course we’d all find some unsavory aspects to our character ...
There’s none of us without such flaws ...
But a great truth of the Christian faith is that if we dare dig deep enough, we will discover that far back in our origins, each one of us has been fashioned to life in the Image of God. Heaven's love and goodness are planted more deeply in us than any hurt or sin or wrong.
We need to rediscover this vital truth about our origins, we need to believe this truth about ourselves no matter how beautiful we discover that we are.
But this national exhibition managed to get personal as well. I wa
s fascinated by the reconstructed faces of four ancient Welsh skulls. Who were these people? In another life would we have been friends ... might we even have been relatives? Of course they say, go back to your roots in any family tree and it is not long before you uncover criminality, madness and even worse.Searching for truth in our origins, in the family or the nation is always risky, especially when its personal and if it gets spiritual.
So I left the exhibition wondering what might happen if this weekend I did some archaeology on my Soul, what if you or I dug down through the layers of who we are what might any of us uncover half hidden in our hearts?
Of course we’d all find some unsavory aspects to our character ...
There’s none of us without such flaws ...
But a great truth of the Christian faith is that if we dare dig deep enough, we will discover that far back in our origins, each one of us has been fashioned to life in the Image of God. Heaven's love and goodness are planted more deeply in us than any hurt or sin or wrong.
We need to rediscover this vital truth about our origins, we need to believe this truth about ourselves no matter how beautiful we discover that we are.
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