7/4/2023 0 Comments Praey for the gods all totemsThey are objects, yes, but familiar ones with deep stories and meaning attached. Years of worship lifted to God, holy prayers in ordinary and festival time echo throughout the empty walls of beautiful containers housing the everyday living of life and faith until their lives were torn apart. These emblems of faith lived out hold the history and ancestry of a chosen people. These totems represent a rich faith tradition and a history of rising above they represent a calling upon these people of God. Not only does he release the captives to rebuild their temple, but he releases to them the items taken from the temple during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. King Cyrus’ actions reveal a similar calling: to let the oppressed go free. It speaks to me of a continual calling on my life to seek justice and encourage the oppressed. My totem reminds me of summers spent as a traveling Spanish language interpreter serving with mission teams in beautiful Baja California, Mexico. I was loved into who I am today, and yet, there is still a piece of me that feels incomplete if I’m not remembering that my bloodline runs part Mexican, and I love that about myself. I was adopted by the greatest parents ever, on August 24, 1983, 2 months, and 2 days after I was born. My totem serves as a link to my biological Latina heritage. Cut squares of abalone shell and round glass beads descend to a simple, silver crucifix, and hangs from the rearview mirror in my car. It’s a rosary made by the Mixtec tribe of Vicente Guerrero, Baja California, Mexico. Merriam-Webster defines “totem” as something that serves as an emblem or revered symbol.” All these Sheshbazzar brought up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem. 9 And this was the inventory: gold basins, thirty silver basins, one thousand knives, twenty-nine 10 gold bowls, thirty other silver bowls, four hundred ten other vessels, one thousand 11 the total of the gold and silver vessels was five thousand four hundred. 8 King Cyrus of Persia had them released into the charge of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 7 King Cyrus himself brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. 6 All their neighbors aided them with silver vessels, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with valuable gifts, besides all that was freely offered. 5 The heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites-everyone whose spirit God had stirred-got ready to go up and rebuild the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.
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