During Bible School this week I was playing the part of the teaching Rabbi. Children came to synagogue school each day and I taught them the basics of reading Hebrew. On the first day, I showed them the word I was going to teach them to read, יְרוּשָׁלַםִ. Each day, I added another skill or taught a letter sound, so that by the end of the week they could sound out the word, Ye•ru•sha•la•yim or Jerusalem.
On the first day, people grumbled and laughed and rolled their eyes. They did not believe me that they could learn to read the word. The letters are strange and too foreign. It seemed too much to learn, but I’m convinced that all of the students that tried were able to sound out the word. It takes concentration, focus and patience.
On the same day a package came in the mail. It was a set of coins for the Bible teaching that I will be doing in South Dakota on mission trip. It was a set of replica Spanish coins. I looked at the coin face and was overwhelmed as I tried to sort out what it meant. I, however, knew that eventually I could solve the puzzle if I did not give up. The first breakthrough came when I determined that it was a replica of an Eight Escudos Spanish Gold Cob. That led me to a coin collecting site that described the figures on the coin.
The eight on the top indicates the valuation. The ‘712’ at the bottom indicates that it was minted in 1712. In the middle is a series of letters that is an abbreviation of a latin phrase “more beyond.” The two upright bars are trees and the lines at the bottom are the Mediterranean Sea. This refers to the long held belief that there was nothing more beyond the straight of Gibraltar, but that Spanish exploration had proved otherwise. “More beyond” continues to be the motto of Spain.
What at first were indecipherable characters became a road map to understanding the time that this coin was designed. Through effort and patience I could understand. Too often, people get overwhelmed and don’t do the careful thinking to understand the complicated issues in the world, but deep thinking is required to make informed choices. It’s not Sanskrit, but even if it was, you could deploy your marvelous brain and gain understanding.