My Father Was a Wandering Aramean

"My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and sojourned there ...(Deut 26:5)" Not really. Actually, my father is a Cuban doctor who came to the USA and sojourned. His father immigrated from Spain to Cuba and then to the USA and sojourned here. Though my father assimilated very well, my grandfather never learned to speak English (and he lived in Miami over 20 years). He always felt himself an alien here.

In many ways it's sad that Abuelo never felt at home in the USA. But it's also understandable. He left a life that he loved, land that he owned, a business that he ran. For him (as well as countless other Cubans), the promised land was 90 miles away, but may as well have been on the moon. He was not a man of faith. Otherwise, perhaps his time of sojourning here could have been different.

My grandfather stands in stark contrast to my great grandmother Luz Divina ("Divine Light" a.k.a Tita). Tita was a woman of faith - and she lived up to her name in every way. She was a Pentecostal, and once she came to the USA, my grandparents (who did not approve of her Pentecostalism) didn't allow her to go to church. I remember visiting once, and coming upon Tita standing on the balcony looking out. She was wearing a beatific expression, and it was clear that she was communing with the Almighty. She was a "wandering Aramean" but she was OK with it. She knew that she was a stranger and alien on a far deeper level than being an old Cuban woman in the USA at the end of her life.

I'm related to Luz Divina by more than simply blood (though I'm deeply honored to share that too). I am also a "wandering Aramean" sojourning here as a stranger and alien. And for me too, it's OK. In fact, it's better than OK, it's an adventure. And I love adventure.