In anticipation of wanting pictures from this trip, I took three cameras. The first was on my Samsung S22 phone, the second was a Canon SX60HS which has a great zoom and a special setting for snow (along with a myriad of features I don’t yet know how to use), and the third was the one in my head. As much as I want mechanical pictures recorded with cameras, I don’t want to miss the mental pictures recorded with my mind. Mechanical images capture what our eyes see, render the likeness of the physical properties we observe, and are printed in pixels. Mental images capture the senses and emotions, record the feelings we experience, and are printed in letters.
I’m often writing these entries on my phone in snatches of time or late at night, searching the internet for information when I have access, and trying to upload those last pixels as we are pulling away from port and connectivity so sometimes the episodes end abruptly with less letters – or more – than I would like. But the inclusion of both mechanical and mental images preserves experiences to be shared, remembered, entered into, and even learned from, again and again.
As I close out this trip, there are many more pictures – and more personal insights – that I could share, but I’ll end with the following, and a few pixels from the camera that I couldn’t access on the ship.
I read an article titled, ” “Why travel should be considered an essential human activity”. One portion stated, “travel…demands a leap of faith…to board a plane for some faraway land, hoping, wishing, for a taste of the ineffable”. Ineffable, “incapable of being expressed in words; unspeakable; unutterable; indescribable”. Travel can be one means to pursue it, and we have certainly sampled it on this trip, in the ever-increasing wonder of penguins, whales, albatrosses, the dessert of Antarctica, Chilean waterfalls and fjords, endless seas, and sunsets on the ocean. The precious presence of God, revealed in His creation and graciously gifted through His Spirit in the calm of quiet and the excitement of quest, in the presence of majestic magnificence and the humble realization of human significance in the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. Desire for the ineffable in life exists in each of us, instilled to draw us toward relationship with the source of life, God Himself. May these travels encourage us to take that leap of faith.
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”