And yet, and yet…

In the center of Cairo, there is a place called the Dead City. In the midst of urban sprawl and high rise worn condos, there is a huge quarter of the city with short buildings and mosques. When you drive past it, you feel transported to a place back in time, almost an Arabian nights feel.

This quarter of the city is called the Dead City. It is a place where thousands upon thousands of Egyptians have been entombed over the past centuries. With all of the beautiful facades and elegant prayer towers, it is a place where the dead abide. It is a phantom dead heart in the midst of a whirling desert city.

And yet, when I drove past the Dead City recently I saw a poignant scene. A group of young boys was playing soccer in the streets of that city. Shoeless, shouting and laughing, the boys kicked the ball back and forth among the tombs. Looking further I saw a cafe set up for the evening, people returning from work. This strange juxtaposition opens eyes: there are people who live among the Dead City. Even in a dead place, these people seek a living.

This reminds me of the greater picture of our lives as believers in the world. We live among ghosts, facades of beauty in the world and culture. In a world of people without Christ, tombs moulder in the dust, telling a story of a life long past. And yet, even though these crypts point to value in life past, real life bursts from the scenes. Boys play soccer in the streets, obscuring the tombs with the dust kicked up by play.

Friends, we who believe are like those children. Even though we live among a world dying and passing to dust, a world that insists that the glory of dead men is the height, we know that the glory of Jesus shines through even in the dead places. We have the privilege, the thrill, of being the refreshing breath of the Lord to our world. To a world downcast by the realities of death, we dance in the resurrection.

So as you walk among the tombs of this world, remember those children playing soccer in the Dead City. Remember that Jesus chooses to reveal life through you. So go play.

“¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. ¹⁵ For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, ¹⁶ to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16