The
dream of buying a French property takes us on a lighthearted
rollercoaster ride of neighbour conflict, dentist visits, deportation by
border police, wine harvests, tennis exploits, a Renoir-style wedding,
colliding particles, and Kafka-esque visa controls.
At
a deeper level, each escapade provides clues to another ‘foreign land’,
what Jesus refers to as the kingdom. Not so much a place as a different
way of living. Little by little, I find myself dreaming about heaven on
earth:
• talking less, listening, and loitering more
• appreciating ‘foreign’ etiquette
• rolling with the rhythms of rural life
• dealing with ‘false friends’ and enjoying new ones
• seeing the virtue of not always winning
• discovering what really matters, and what really doesn’t…
….
I might have learned these lessons anywhere. It could have been in
Finchley or Philadelphia, but it turned out to be in France.
The
story is engaging and filled with word pictures, but it is much more
than a simple narrative. Chris manages to wind an authentic silver
thread around life, faith, and truth, thereby offering a unique model of
spiritual spring-cleaning.
Adrian Plass, author of Still Crazy and The Shadow Doctor