I have gone on excursions to the river, stunting off rocks and laughing childishly in the middle of a water fight, constructing a makeshift shelter using tree limbs and a half-torn tarp, cooking rice and chicken in a huge pot and playing chess cross-legged in the sand. I have, in the midst of a dry spell, run after the fire truck with five gallon buckets in each hand, pushing for position among a desperate crowd, wrestling to get my share of water from a wildly gyrating hose, getting soaked and not minding at all.

I have observed an hour-long political argument in the street, being entertained by Dominican culture as neighbors hopped fences and came to screeching, dusty halts on their mopeds to join in the chaos, raising their arms and attempting to shout above everyone else- furiously pointing fingers and pacing forcefully up and down the street, grabbing friends and waving flags and even bringing plantains out of the kitchen to get their point across.

I have ventured to the coast and danced on the beach and- somehow- avoided a tornado that swept through La Vega, tearing off roofs and toppling trees, leaving the school stripped bare and forcing the community to come together. I have seen and done many things: this is what comes to mind as being immediately lucid; clear as the sun in the sky; concrete and sensible. Yet there is something more real behind it all, something more meaningful and true and silent, something of peace and love and great rest, something we were built to encounter.

Our inner eyes often fail us. Vision is physical; interpretation is spiritual. Perspective, in a sense, is reality. Circumstances are perhaps not as significant as our understanding of them. I do not say this in an attempt to dumb down suffering to a simple question of changing one’s point of view (whatever you believe, loss is painful) nor do I seek to assert that there is no Ultimate Reality. I simply wish to point out that Allah is just as real to the Muslim and Unity to the Buddhist and Jehovah to the Jew and Vishnu to the Hindu as Christ is to me.

Perspective is reality. Reality, in turn, is perspective. Relativism, though in its full-blown form can turn into an awful sort of superiority and contradiction, does have something to say. “From my perception, this is what seems to be. The blind men are feeling the elephant: some feel a trunk and others a tail; some a tusk and others a round, muscular leg, all of which are very real, yet all of which fall ultimately short. We can no more grasp the fullness of truth than a man can see the whole of a sphere at once.”

Now, what happens when the Elephant steps out of the unknown and speaks to us? What happens when the Author walks on stage and says: “this is what I meant by it all”? What happens when the Socratic Seminar is interrupted by a tide of sovereign truth? The claims of Jesus are so radical- so seemingly megalomaniacal- that it would literally take a life of miraculous fulfillment, perfect moral beauty, and victory over death to convince anyone that what he said was true. This, breathtakingly enough, is exactly the puzzle we find ourselves in. The Word became flesh- Logic revealed its design. Now it is our choice to decide which sort of reality we will live in: his or one of our own making.

God has died and made us perfect and holy, so that his very Spirit may take root inside. We have been completely freed. As Paul writes in Colossians: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” This is the larger, subtler, more solid certainty that I have felt to be, in a way, even more authentic than what is visible. This is the foundation that has begun to be poured within, replacing my old, weak structure. In all and through all, God’s glory literally does fill the earth, and surely my perception of Jesus does not capture the fullness of who he is. Yet I am grateful for the few glimpses he has given me of himself, for they have been sweeter than honey and fresher than the morning dew. What can I do but give thanks?