Growing up in Texas, my memories of family vacations usually centered around going to Lake Buchannon in the middle of the state for fishing, playing, and eating. Once we took a family trip to see some relatives in Kentucky. After being in Texas with short trips dominating my life, Kentucky seemed like it was either 100 miles or a million miles away.
Today, I heard on the news that a Belgium beer company is trying to buy the U. S. beer company that makes Budweiser. I am not a beer drinker. There are only two things that even interest this Texas boy in this business news at all. One interest point is that a corporation in another country located on another continent is knowledgeable and agressive is seeking to buy a U. S. corporation. When I was growing up, that would have been a great rariety. Today it is commonplace. We definitely live with a world economy in which globalization effects every part of life. Our globe has shrunk.
The second reason I have an interest in this particular possible business transaction is that our daughter, her Air Force husband, and their two children (two of our four grandchildren) will leave the United States in a week and a half to live in Belgium for three years where our son-in-law will be stationed with NATO. This is their fifth assignment with the Air Force - four different states and now a different country on a different continent. My parents never considered living anywhere more than 20 miles from where they grew up. While I have visited some other countries and have considered living in other states on occasion, I have just moved around in Texas for sixty-one years. But our children and grandchildren live with far more choices. Our globe is expanding.
Interestingly enough, my wife and I can drive about 20 miles to the DFW Airport; board a plane; make one stop in the U.S. and change planes; and arrive in Belgium far quicker than my family made a drive from Temple, Texas, to Mayfield, Kentucky, in 1957 (and that car had no air conditioning, of course, neither did our house). Our globe is shrinking.
Our grandchildren will be bussed from Belgium to The Netherlands to attend an international school. They will have the opportunity to study different languages each year they are there. They should come back to the U. S. with a fairly conversant ability in French and Flemish based on the village (small European town) where they will live. I doubt that their parents will pick up the languages so quickly. So the roles will be reversed. Our grandchildren will be able to speak to each other in languages their parents don't understand and they won't even have to spell out the words. Our globe is expanding.
As parents, we are both excited and anxious for them. What an opportunity that awaits them in new friends and neighbors, new customs, new languages, and Belgian chocolate! But they will be so far away! Of course, we both have our passports and I check for ticket bargains almost daily. Our globe is shrinking and expanding.
Putting on my professional hat for a moment, I wonder if the followers of Christ in the U. S. and the churches they attend have taken time to notice what is happening to our globe. I know that some have because I see their international involvements while at the same time ministering to the internationals who just moved in next door to the church property. Will everyone take notice of our changing world? Of course not! Everyone never does the same thing. But, maybe more will take notice as their lives are personally touched by a globe that has the current characteristic of shrinking and expanding both at the same time.
It is time to close this entry - I need to go and check to see if any airlines are running a special on Belgium any time soon.
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