The Other Side

Below you can see the pictures of our Good Friday pilgrimage.  I'm not the kind of person who can fully focus on my own side of the mountain, however, when there was another sight on the other side that moved me in other ways. 

They estimated 10,000 people would climb Mount Cristo Rey on Good Friday.  That, unfortunately, does not include everyone who wanted to climb the mountain and take that pilgrimage.  The picture above shows the "other side of the mountain," the Anapra, Mexico, side.  You probably won't be able to make out the images, but they are burned into my brain. 

Above you are seeing the border between two countries.  There is a family in the picture above, getting as close to Mount Cristo Rey as they can, taking their own pilgrimage.  There is also a line of armed men, the border patrol from our country, making sure they don't get too close, making sure that the invisible, man-made border is not crossed. 

The God we were remembering on our pilgrimage did not make a border there.  People did.  I just can't help but think that the God we were remembering would want us to be able to remember together, and not to be separated by guards or anything else. 

Below is a larger group of people, staring at the mountain from a nearby road.  Their houses are closer to the mountain than mine, yet they have to view it from over there.  They were once allowed to pilgrimage to the top each year.  Their grandparents may have stories about their own treks up the mountain and what it meant to them.  Now they have to use their binoculars and watch us make the climb.

I'm sure they know God is on their side of that invisible border, just as he is on our side.  I just think sometimes our own country needs to remember that fact.