Where is my home?

Last week some friends and I took a free three hour walking tour of Prague. I was rather hesitant to go, as three hours is quite a bit of time and I wondered if i'd learn anything new. After all, I have lived in the city for nearly two years. That should be enough time to learn everything there is about Prague, right? (Okay, okay, I admit that I was a little over confident in my knowledge!)

Have no fear! I was sufficiently humbled by the time the tour was over. There is, indeed, an abundance of information that I know nothing about related to Prague. For instance, our tour guide spoke of her husband's mother. Her husbands mother held 4 passports, was a citizen of multiple countries, and never moved out of the city she was born in. She was a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Republic of Czechoslovakia, The Communist party of Czechoslovakia, and the Czech Republic. Imagine the amount of paperwork and headache that would come with having to apply for new passports and other legal paperwork with each changeover! It truly is no wonder that the Czech people have titled their national anthem, "where is my home?"

. . . This beautiful land that I currently "hang my hat in" and call my home has been through a lot more than I imagine in the past 100 years. Many of the people I brush shoulders with each day have lived through at least 2 governments. Many of them were here in 1968 when Soviet tanks came thundering down their city roads (the same city roads I walk down so regularly!) to send the message that democracy would come at a high cost! (A cost the Czechs could not pay at that time but that they were willing to give their lives to make statements about!)

I think of the group of students that chose to burn themselves in front of the National Museum as a statement about the government they were under. I walked past Jan Polach's memorial just the other day.

I can't fully understand the heart aches of the Czech people. I'm only a visitor in a foreign land. But, I can relate to their search for a home.

. . . My hope and prayer is that one day these people will turn once again recognize their eternal home. My prayer is that the words of Godly men, WORLD changers like Jan Hus, who sought to reform the church before even Martin Luther will not be forgotten. My hope is that the 27 white crosses at the bottom of Old Town Square will not be seen as decorations. 27 men were tortured to death because of their faith!

The Czech people are seeking a home that they can trust in.

May they find it.

"For we know that if the tent,

which is the earthly home, is destroyed,

we have a building from God,

a house not made with hands,

eternal in the heavens."

2 Corinthians 5:1

The Czech National Anthem

Kde domov muj?
(Where is my homeland, where is my
homeland?)

Kde domov muj, kde domov muj?
Voda huci po lucinach,
bory sumi po skalinach,
v sade skvi se jara kvet,
zemsky raj to na pohled!
A to je ta krasna zeme,
zeme ceska domov muj,
zeme ceska domov muj!

English Translation:

Where is my home, where is my home?
Water bubbles across the meadows,
Pinewoods rustle among crags,
The garden is glorious with spring blossom,
Paradise on earth it is to see.
And this is that beautiful land,
The Czech land, my home.

Where is my home, where is my home?
If, in a heavenly land, you have met
Tender souls in agile frames,
Of clear mind, vigorous and prospering,
And with a strength that frustrates all defiance,
That is the glorious race of the Czechs,
Among Czechs is my home.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/