Merry Christmas, folks. Today was definitely one of the more profound days I have been lucky enough to experience. The Crook family is in Greece for the holidays this year, and we spent the day meandering around Athens on a beautiful sun-drenched day, the city silent around us. We wandered around the Pynx, where orators once addressed thousands of citizen/politicians and planted the very seeds of democracy. We sat across from the Aeropagus Hill and the Agora, where the apostle Paul pointed out to the leaders of Athens that they had a shrine to an "unknown god" and that he had an idea who that god was. We walked in Byzantine churches dark with time inside and heavy with incense, the worshippers genuflecting before altars of woven silver and wood. We stood atop the hill where Alexander the Great's generals once stood, watching the bright copper sun melt into the Aegean Sea where Xerxes' armies smashed their boats and sank during the battle of Salamis over four hundred years before Christ was born. We moseyed through a loose city on Christmas morning, exchanging pleasantries in our pitiful Greek and laughing. We bought trinkets and small marble busts which will gather dust on our bookshelves for years to come. Life was good today.
I hope everyone had fun today with your families and friends, and I hope I see you soon.
