(slideshow) 12 Faces and 12 short stories from the Holy Land

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12 Faces and 12 short stories from the Holy Land

Sand in a Bottle From his tent, he silently looks at ancient Petra: the camels, the Bedouins, the old buildings, the palm trees. Born in a world of sand, his hands have learned how to use it, transform it, shape it. He doesn’t talk very much, and he doesn’t really look for tourists’ attention. He stays there knowing that people will eventually approach him, fascinated by his art, while he is doing his magic, an old tradition learned from his ancestors. “Once you have learned how to do it, you can literally draw anything you want in the sand.” One can but think on how God shapes us. “For you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Just dust, indeed, so that God can shape us in any way we let Him do it. In the words of Augustine, “the one who created you is also the one who knows what he wants you to be.”

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