Every Friday the FMF community writes for five minutes on a prompt given by Kate Motaung. Sometimes the first five minutes of writing stimulates more thought, and I continue on . . . Today’s prompt is: TRY
During the past two weeks I had the wonderful experience of attending a family reunion in Finland. My maternal grandmother had come to the United States when she was nineteen years old. Two of her brothers were already here, but the remaining ten siblings stayed in Finland. She was never able to go back.
During the two weeks in Finland I had time with a number of our second cousins, third cousins, cousins once or twice removed. Some were fluent in English, some were not. But we found ways to communicate. I tried out the words that I knew in Finnish and then resorted to the app on my i-pad. My relatives tried out words in English and used the Finnish/English dictionary.
We were persistent in our efforts to communicate. I learned about my grandmother’s life in Finland and felt the kinship with my Finnish relatives. . . .
My thoughts have moved on to think about God’s persistent efforts to communicate with us. He has given us the Bible and his Son. In the gospel of John, Jesus is called the Word. Through Jesus we have been given the ability to be in communication with God. Jesus instructed the disciples (and us) to pray, addressing God as our Father. Our prayers, uttered in faith, are heard.
Come visit Five Minute Friday and share your perspective on TRY.
What a neat experience to be able to visit with extended family and learn more about your heritage. And a great post. I love how you tie the persistence of communicating with your relatives to how God is also persistent to communicate with us. Thank you for sharing. Visiting from FMF #72.
We are blessed by God’s love. Thanks for visiting, Robin. Have a good week!
very true. I actually had to check what blog I was on as your words reminded me of words of a friend who also blogs. 🙂 Let’s keep that communication going eh?
Love it – I have a friend and fellow Toastmaster who was born and raised in Finland. I enjoy hearing about her visits.
It is truly a beautiful country. Thanks for visiting!
It sounds like it was a great experience to meet some of your family, and it’s so true that communication takes persistence at times. I love the link you make with how God persists in communicating with us in different ways. Visiting from FMF #11.
Liisa spoke no English and my Finnish was limited, but we spent a lovely day together. we were able to communicate about our children and grandchildren. We both have three children (well, I actually have four–one with the Lord) and seven grandchildren. We passed the Finnish/English dictionary back and forth. Thanks for visiting! Have a great weekend.
Loved this, Carol (and I love Finland, too!).
Just trying to communicate with no shared language can bring people closer together than they could ever imagine. It’s SO worth it!
#1 at FMF this week.
https://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2017/08/your-dying-spouse-345-embracing-fear-fmf.html
Thank-you for visiting, Andrew– and for your honest words in your post today.