I hope you are enjoying listening to my story, particularly how my life changed after meeting that 18 year old Berliner boy, named Thomas. From that time on, my life had been woven into, that of his family, and particularly his mother.
To understand more of that relationship, you would need to hear my earlier episodes. The saddest thing for his mother Nadja, was when we announced, that we were moving to California in the fall of ‘71. Our goodbye get together, consisted of Thomas passing the hash pipe around, and telling her what a terrible mother she had been. She left our place in tears, thinking she would never see her son again.
But then, he changed his tune, after we were living in Oakland. He missed his family, and wanted to share with them, what our lives were like in California. It was a whole new world for him, compared to West Berlin. That began his regular habit of writing long, descriptive letters to Nadja, and she always took the time to reply. Once we were married, and had our baby, her biggest hope was that she could come visit us.
What she definitely didn’t expect to hear, was that we had given our lives to Jesus, and were living at a Christian ranch. And that’s when the content of Thomas’ letters changed drastically.
I thought her opinions were so interesting, because they are exactly, what many people believe today. In our 21st century culture, you hear variations of these teachings everywhere, including in Christian circles. The leaders and authors, of these philosophies, tend to think, that they have a new understanding about life and truth. But God has a different perspective. There is a verse in the Bible that says “there is nothing new under the sun.”
I suppose, the authors of the books that Nadja was reading at the time, convinced her that they had the secret of life.
Then he had a great idea. I had on my right pinky finger, a gold band that my grandmother had given me for my birthday. He suggested that I wear it on my left hand as a wedding ring. He said, here let me put the ring on your finger. That turned into a sweet spontaneous ceremony, right there sitting by the open fire. It was pretty special, we renewed our marriage vows, and this time it was much more meaningful to us.
Song: My Glory and the Lifter of my Head, written in 1971
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSf6wjNw1w
