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My father’s name is Terah and I was born in the city of Ur,
a very big city. Many travel from Ur on
the river and cattle carts and donkey caravans as far away as Egypt. Date palms grow around the city and canals
bring water for crops of barley, lentils, onions, and garlic. I was lucky enough to even learn to read and
write a little from a local priest. I
studied arithmetic, accounting, and Sumerian literature. I also learned about all of the gods of the
city, tribes and people around Ur. All
of these gods were confusing to me, but I learned from the priest about them
and remembered his words. The priest
spent quite a bit of time telling me about Sin, the moon god. Sin, also referred to as En Zu, is considered
the ‘chief of the gods’ and the ‘creator of all things.’ His wife is Ningal and she bore him Shamash
and Ishtar, gods of the Sun and Venus.
My childhood imagination could see En Zu riding across the sky on a
winged bull.
Early in my life
Terah moved our entire family to Haran, a city that also had a temple to the
God En Zu. Of course Sarah, my wife,
came with us. Also, Terah’s grandson,
Lot, came. There were many others also,
family members, friends, and workers. It
was a long and dusty trip. We took all
of our sheep, goats, and donkeys. The
donkeys helped us carry our belongings.
Sometimes the women and children would ride on the donkeys. However, the trip was not much different than
the life that we had living around Ur.
We were always moving from place to place so that our sheep could graze
and have water.
One of my earliest memories around Haran is about looking
into the sky and seeing the moon. The air is cool and it is
dark. Looking up into the sky, the stars fill the night. They are
shining bright and seem so close that I could reach up and grab one. The
feeling of awe and wonder pour over me, lift me up, and all of the stars speak
to me. They ask me, “Who are you to ask?” But I have to ask
anyway. From where do you come? Why are you there? What are
you? I ask all of these questions of the stars, and they ask the same
questions back to me. All of the questions make sense to me, but some say
I should not ask. However, this night is not about reason. The stars are
speaking and I am flying across the heavens.
Just like En Zu riding the winged bull.
Flying on the overwhelming
feeling of awe, peculiarity, hope…….feelings that have no words……flying without
wings. As I flew without wings, I was outside of myself. When I land, the stars keep asking, but give
no answers. It is I that must give the answer, maybe an answer of
faith. I am not flying anymore. However, I have to make my answer
work here and in all the places beyond where I have been found.
My father, Terah, died while we lived in Haran. It was a great loss. The one to whom I looked for guidance was
gone. I now had to seek guidance from a
strength within myself that included all the memories of my father, my past,
stories of the moon God. I felt like I
was outside of myself, looking at my life.
Without my father, what was I to do?
In the midst of this loss, I knew, in spite of everything, I needed to
act for the sake of my life and my family.
I needed courage to act.
I decided that I needed to leave Haran with all of my
family. At night, the moon spoke to
me. I would think about my father and
all that he gave to me, but realized that even he could not give to me the land
and the skies, the stars and the moon, the sun and the clouds. I could hear a great voice, a father, a god,
maybe even the God calling me on to a new adventure.
But to take that first step toward something that I did not
know was hard. Could I ever be sure that
my plan was right. Most of the time life
for me is ordinary and this ordinary life seems to hold me in place. Why venture out? Why risk a new thing? Yet, I still seem to hear --- yet it was not
really a hearing --- an extraordinary call to a new place. But finally I could feel that it was not this
extraordinary hearing alone that called me to a journey. It was also the ordinary experiences of life
that were calling also. The birth of a
child, the smile of my wife, the wonder of the land and the skies were leading
my in the process of life. I simply
needed to trust, to have faith for the first and the next step. With my father gone, I now had to be
father. In the steps of faith, I became
the father of many who also live a life of trust.
Experiencing Life: A Personal, Ecumenical, Christian Perspective By John R King, Jr.
