Tapestries. Icons. Carpets. Jewelry. Olive wood. Scarves. Prayer shawls. Goblets. Clothing. Food. Mezuzim. Menorahs. Beads. Artwork. Carvings. Pottery. Artifacts. Mustard seeds. Widows mites. Bibles. Knives. Shofars. Books. Miniatures. Statues. Antiquities. Maps. Gems. Plates. Robes. Coins. Sponge Bob Square Pants Books Bags.
Seeing yellow Sponge Bob on the shelf of a shop in the Old City markets of Jerusalem provided a vivid constrast to the world we represent and the world we were in at the moment. I guess it proves children are children everywhere, and that the reach of Western culture is farther than we usually realize. Watching the young locals walk past all the items that were interesting to me and focus on Sponge Bob was a short tutorial in international marketing. Maybe we should license Sponge Bob to do some promotion, work in the church, or in our state department. Square Pants may have conquered the language thing that fosters mis-understanding among the peoples of the world. No habla!
It's just a side-note to our recent twelve days in Israel, but the international language is money. There are, of course, kissing cousins---commerce, finance, profit and loss, sales, margins---and all the bullets of trade. In that part of the world, the diverse cultures and religions and languages meet where the dollars intersect their lives. So, old Sponge Bob, an American icon or sorts, stood right there on a shelf beside the cool Holy Land stuff testifying to the tie that binds, big bucks.
That's not to diminish the spiritual blessings of visiting the Holy Land and the places so central to our faith. They are moving and inspiring in deeply personal ways, made real by the blessing of the One who lives in us. But, then, there's the real world of right now intruding through the garish yellow figure of a cartoon character. He announces that the Holy has met the unholy in the person of this faith, Jesus, the Lord.
So, commerce thrives. And, we love and worship Him in that world, where little Middle Eastern kids like Sponge Bob too.
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