Ceai

 

I usually fly into Europe and rent a car so that I can have transportation while in Romania, but in 2008, I flew into Budapest, Hungary and took the train into Romania.  It was a leisurely trip, and I enjoyed seeing the countryside from a different view than the highways.  As I was leaving, a dear friend took me to Timişoara for a farewell meal with another dear friend.  After we ate, we had a cup of herbal tea (ceai in Romanian) and sat and talked.  I remarked that I really liked the tea, and upon leaving, the hostess presented me with a Ziploc bag of the tea along with some sweets for the train.  I asked her where she had gotten the tea, and she gave me the name of a street.  She had picked the tea leaves herself!  But after I boarded the train and examined my gifts, the tea in the Ziploc bag looked exactly like a bag of marijuana!  Since I would be crossing the Hungarian border soon and going through security at the airport the next day for the flight home, I had to ditch the tea at the nearest trash can.  What a pity!  Hey, often in life we must make decisions based on appearances.  Paul admonished the church in Thessaloniki in I Thessalonians 5:22 to “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”  If it looks questionable to other folk … Christians or pagans, just don’t do it.  Don’t risk being mistaken.  Good advice, even for a bag of tea.