If you move to China...

Do your eyes look like the Chinese?
This was the question posed by Notorious after school yesterday.
Being the culture lover that I am, and having felt SO much like wishing I blended in more in a country that was not my own, I answered in great detail.
How cool is it that God made us each special and how we LOOK like our country of origin, or at least our parent's. And WHY don't we morph into looking like cultures where we replant? We can learn their language. Eat their food. Did you even know that different cultures CLEAN differently than we do? Not to mention parent. SO many cultural and social norms that can be adapted to yet you always look like yourself.
Pompey tells of so many times he and Tia wished for the brown skin of their African playmates. In fact, I think Tia had to LEARN that she didn't look like them, she was just a tot when they moved there.
We were so lucky to live in a place where for the most part we fit in, for the most part. But what about workers in China, Indonesia, Africa...how strange must they feel. I bet even adults long to mesh completely...
This cross cultural life is in my blood now. I never thought it possible at the beginning of marriage but it is who I am. I grieve that as much as I love Keystone, they don't openly go on mission or value cross culturalmissions and don't instill it in my kids. Although, I know that is why we are there and each week fuels me to live my passion, which sadly means we will eventually leave the country again but how cool to be in a church home that so fully completes and complements our spiritual gifts and needs that it makes us want to GO. Because they ignite our passion, our Call.
It is my prayer, my hope, that our community there will fall in love with the communities of the world, that they will see and long for the differences both culturally and spiritually, and that they will take on the command that all nations, every tongue, would know our awesome creator.
So awesome that he allows us to adapt in every conceivable way, except for our physical characterisitics.
Now why is that??