Counterpoint to Wonder - song and slideshow

The refugees and asylum seekers fleeing violence in Honduras are much on my heart these days.  Through Project Via Crucis, a Central Pennsylvania ministry of accompaniment with the churches and people of El Salvador, I was privileged to participate in five PVC delegations during the early to mid-1990s.  Walking and worshiping with the faithful, oppressed people of Central America irrevocably changed my understanding and perspective. This blog post and the video it references are my response to the present day suffering of Hondurans and to the terrible misinformation about them that our government officials want us to believe.

From photographs of El Salvador and other meaningful locations I have created a video slideshow set to the song “Counterpoint to Wonder” by Carolyn McDade.  The song, with its challenge to each of us to choose with whom we stand, grew out of Carolyn’s own experiences in Nicaragua in the 1980s.  Here is the link to view the video on YouTube: Counterpoint to Wonder. What follows are thumbnail images of the slides with identification of location and relevance to the words of the song.  I invite readers to view the video first, then return to this blog post to learn about the images, then view the video a second time, keeping this information in mind.

Refugees

The story of Jesus’ birth which is found in Matthew’s gospel narrates events that took place months, or perhaps even years, after the miraculous night described in the Gospel of Luke.  We don’t know precisely how long it took the Magi, after they first saw the star, to outfit their caravan and make their way along the ancient trade route from Persia to Judea.  Stopping first in Jerusalem to inquire about the child, they were delayed while Herod consulted the temple authorities concerning prophecies of the Messiah.  The protocols of oriental hospitality would have extended their stay in Jerusalem even longer. 

By the time the Magi arrived in Bethlehem, the holy family was living in a house, not the rude stable-cave where Jesus had been born.  (see Matthew 2:11)  Jesus most likely was already a toddler playing at his mother’s knee.  This supposition is strengthened by the fact that Herod targeted boy-children two years of age and under in his attempt to assassinate the Christ child.  Thanks to a timely warning by one of God’s messengers before the massacre could occur, Joseph took Mary and Jesus and fled into Egypt.  There they lived as refugees until they received word that Herod had died.  Though there is considerable uncertainty about the exact dates for these events, it would seem that the family lived for at least a year or two in Egypt before they were able to return safely to Judea and take up permanent residence in the town of Nazareth.