A few final thoughts

A few final trailing thoughts from my Europe trip and then I won't brag any more about what a lucky girl I am to work for a company that sends me to Europe for business trips! Of course, to bring me back to reality I always remember that my brother-in-law has been taking regular trips to Europe himself but manages to do so aboard the company jet . . . this always takes my big head down a notch or two :) I'm so glad Ben took a picture of me while I was trying to get a good picture inside the Duomo in Milan. I was trying to take a picture of the pillars but with the low light and inability to use a flash, I had to set the shutter speed on an extremely slow setting in order to get enough light to see anything. I am much too shaky to get a clear shot while I held the camera so we rigged a setup on the floor so we could set the camera and let go and get a good photo. I read on a photography website that sometimes you have to be willing to get down on the ground to get the good shot! I am often struck when I'm flying by the miracle of science that allows flight. Really - something that huge and heavy with hundreds of people on it taking off and getting airborne and then staying airborne? It truly is a miracle.

We stopped by a small church in Milan on our way to get gelato one day and came across this statue of Christ. It is made out of bent nails and was really quite remarkable. The thought came to me how interesting that Catholicism, and most other Christian churches for that matter, really have made and art out of the Crucifixion. I am so grateful that in my faith, we choose to focus on the Resurrection and the joy and hope that comes from that event. Rather than focusing on the death of Jesus Christ, we focus on the fact that he arose again and that "evenso in Christ, shall all be made alive". The gift of the atonement and the Crucifixion is all the more poignant to me because of what came afterwards - the Resurrection and the hope that comes with an eternal life after death.