Frog Tunnels and Masterpieces

For my American friends out there (especially my Texan friends), when you map a destination and figure out how many miles it is to said destination, then you have a pretty rough idea about how long that trip will take, right? There’s almost no thought involved at all - a place is 60 miles away, it’s gonna take me about 60 minutes to get there. Simple.

Not the case here. I took the boys to this pseudo-theme park a couple of months ago and it was 18 miles from my house. Guess how long that 18 mile trip took us?!

It took about an hour and 20 minutes! The roads are narrow and windy, and cars stop and park in the middle of the road sometimes - and sometimes you get stuck behind a biker struggling his way up the hill. The normal speed limit on these windy roads is actually 49mph (80 kilometers per hour) and then down to 30 mph when you’re going through a town. I’m sure you’ve heard stories about the autobahn in Germany where you can drive much faster, with no speed limit at all. I’ll admit, the autobahn is nice … when your route takes you in a direction that the autobahn travels.

Needless to say, we’ve had to adjust or re-train our brains in regards to mileage equating time on a trip. That being said, we have figured out that it takes us about 17 minutes to get to the golden arches. That’s right, I think I’ve confessed to most of you before that we frequent the nearest McDonalds more than we’d like to admit. It’s familiar and we always know what we’re gonna get (unlike some of the local places). My drive-thru German abilities get better every time ;).

For the last several weeks, our “quick” trip to the closest McDonalds has been thwarted. The 17 minute trip has turned into almost double that. We’ve tried different routes - I even slipped in the mud one day when I had to jump out of the car and move a construction barrier out of our way so we wouldn’t have to turn all the way around and start over (please don’t turn me in to the Polizei). So, what is the cause of this annoying hindrance to our weekly mcnuggets?

UMLEITUNG - it means Detour in German. When I first encountered the detour, it was obvious that they must be doing some construction on the road up ahead. No big deal. I mean, I’m sure I was a bit annoyed, but they’ll get it done and it’ll be back to normal soon.

Then, one day, Lance was driving us through the detour. Here was our conversation:

Lance: You know what they’re doing over there on the road, don’t you?

Me: Fixing the road?

Lance: Nope.

Me: So, what are they doing?

Lance: It’s over a million dollar project to build a tunnel under the road for the frogs.

Me: Say what?!

Yep, you read that right - weeks and weeks of the umleitung for the frogs. They are actually building a tunnel underneath the road so that frogs can have safe passage.

So, what do we do? We adjust. We take the detour. We go on with life and still make regular trips to the golden arches. It just takes a bit longer.

For the month of November, Germany is in a “lite lockdown.” Schools and grocery stores are still open, but everything else is closed. The other mandate is that you only be in contact with 1 other household at a time. This has caused the school to have to get really creative with the school day and anything extra-curricular. So, the small group ministry has moved to the school and has to be part of the school day. The first week that we met at the school, I had my girls listen to the song by KB, Masterpiece. I had the lyrics typed out and some contemplative questions. We had some really really good conversation around this song. God has created us to be a Masterpiece.

And before you think I’m about to launch into a theological post about how God created the frogs and their lives are worth building a tunnel for, I’m absolutely not.

The parallel I did draw, though, was this - sometimes the masterpiece of our lives that God is continually shaping, includes detours. Sometimes, we have to take the long way around and sometimes it takes way longer than we think it should to get to our destination. Sometimes, the detour seems utterly ridiculous to us. But, His Word is still true - we are His and He has created us to be His masterpiece. The journey He has laid out for us is a beautiful part of that masterpiece.

It was a much needed reminder for myself and a really great word for my 10th grade Third Culture Kids dealing with more than I could ever imagine.