THE INSULA

Harry in an "insula" in Israel - September 2007

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

John 14:2-3

In the verses quoted above, Jesus gives a beautiful picture of what heaven will be like, using imagery that his audience would understand. In Jesus' time, families usually lived in clusters of buildings called insulas. These clusters were built around a central courtyard. Grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts all lived and interacted together in the insula.

As sons married, they added to the insula. After asking a girl to marry him, the son would return to his village and build new rooms onto his father's home. The son, anxious to be married, waited for the day when his father declared that the building was complete. Then he could finally marry his bride and bring her to their new home.

These past few weeks, as we've had Jake and Vereni and Sofia and Nicolas staying with us, Harry and I often reflected on the lesson learned in Israel about the insula and God's intent that His people live in community. In the United States we are into rugged individualism. Children leave home early and multi-generational households are rare. Hearing the lesson about the insula, we realized that that living arrangement is very similar to what we saw in Mexico when we travelled to Vereni's hometown of Casacuaran in Guanajuato. I figured that Vereni would be quite comfortable staying with us for an extended amount of time, as she recovered from both the C-section and the hernia surgery, because having alot of family around is so familiar to her. But it would be a new experience for the rest of us.

Jake and Vereni and their beautiful little family have gone back to their own house today, after spending nearly five weeks with us. Jake had dreaded the whole idea of being back with mom and dad, but he now admits that it wasn't that bad. Mealtimes were special, and there were always ready hands to help with the tasks at hand. It was a positive experience for all of us.