Beneath The Surface

I'm intrigued while I watch this captivating program about a woman in quest of historic uncovering. To find answers to questions over a two thousand years old - to seek a tomb beneath the surface. The tomb of Cleopatra. She is no archeologist; rather, her profession is that of a criminal lawyer from the Dominican Republic. But long ago, Shakespeare's play made her fall in love with the romance of the young queen and Marc-Antony, and her researching skills drove her to eventually go to Egypt and seek permission to dig. Not in the places most researchers have looked, but in a new site - a site where her gut tells her answers may lie.

That was ten years ago, and she's still on the hunt all this time later. But she's unearthed treasures and clues at a site many had ruled out. And it appears as though she's really onto something. And that sense alone keeps her going. She believes, one day, she'll find what she's been looking for all this time.

The image of the site carefully being uncovered, small bit by small bit, brings the human heart to mind. We're all in some state of being the diggers or the site being dug. When it comes to how we get to know one another, we all in varying phases of uncovering and being the uncovered. And I'm drawn to a great lesson here: it's all in how we dig that reveals how much we're willing to be dug. 

We're all a composite of layers hiding secrets long-buried, stories untold. We're our own history of experiences and truths that made us into who we've become and, in the depths uncovered, we all deeply long to be known and understood. To have someone love us enough to investigate and learn who we really are. 

Archeologists understand that you can't take a shovel to a site and just begin to stab randomly into the dirt, hoping you find something. Uncovering history's layers is painstaking work. It takes lots and lots of time. Often, you may be there years trying to search one area in hopes of discovery. And all the while, you trust your effort will yield answers eventually. But it takes great patience...something our culture isn't often willing to give when it comes to the soul of a person. 

Our haste for immediate answers and quick fixes has made it so that we are not often willing to go at the pace required to discover the inner workings of someone. To go below. To search beneath the surface. When it seems we do not get somewhere right away with the person, we get easily discouraged and think we cannot do anything for them. We cannot learn who they are. It's too hard and takes too much time. So we move on. We still care for them, but we do not wait out the hard process it takes to unearth hidden treasure in their heart. 

It's like this site that's being currently investigated. Teposiris Magna had long been a recognized site of ancient Egyptian ruins. Its walls had been researched somewhat in the past but it had long been ignored as having any potential connection to the forgotten burial site of the last queen of Egypt. That is, until this Dominican amateur came along and decided to look where others would not. 

Are we brave enough to take on the potential life-long undertaking of discovering how somebody we love actually ticks? To get out the chisels, the brushes and slowly, slowly look - one tiny piece at a time? A single conversation likely won't reveal everything. You'll be asking questions and searching for answers likely for a long time. But patience can be rewarded when once you come upon those beautiful things buried in somebody's layers, showing you a wonderful heart just waiting to be discovered. 

I've been the digger many times and lately, I've been more the one being dug. And a friend who has long been one of those patience ones, intrigued by what might be below, told me the other day that "those who want to figure you out, will." And it's true. They won't bring a shovel and simply begin to jab into the soul-earth, likely damaging things underneath. They know better. Instead, they'll come and be prepared for the long haul. Content to learn a little or a lot at a time, eventually seeing a bigger picture of how everything connects the more they learn about you. 

How you love is what makes the difference. If you look for answers more for your own sake, you'll probably hurry the process and cause more harm. Miss more hidden things because you're looking in the wrong way. But look for the sake of loving and understanding the one you care for and are seeking to know better, and you'll stay as long as necessary in order to figure it out. And you'll be patient while the digging site gives you what it does. You can't make it reveal itself any faster than it wants. 

So if you're the one digging, come prepared to be there awhile. You won't learn everything right away and it may take you years to discover what's there. But don't give up. There's nothing worse than somebody coming in, taking a pickax or digging bar to you, randomly chipping away and likely tearing up some of the ruins below and then deciding that there's nothing there and walking away, leaving more rubble than when they began. Let the person reveal what they want, how they want, when they want. You'll get further along in the learning process that way. And don't get discouraged. It takes a long time to build the trust necessary to not fear the hands that are digging on the heart and to believe that they'll value what's underneath and not just try to plunder it for its goods. 

And if you're the one being dug, don't feel the need to show all your secrets at once. An archeological site certainly doesn't. That's what makes the journey interesting for the one wanting to find out. Because they have to keep looking. And if they love you enough, they will. With every passage-way, every artifact, every treasure unearthed, it will encourage them to stick with the search and keep asking questions, keep discovering. Let the story of you - buried in layers though it may be - let it speak for itself. It is intriguing, beautiful, and informative in its own way. And those who wish to find out its surprises will make the effort. So keep opening up to the ones who truly desire to figure out your riddles and mysteries. It will be worth it for both you and them. 

People think that its easy to learn the ways of the heart but, time and again, it is proven that there is only One who truly sees what is beneath the surface. Only One who really sees and knows us as we are. His hands peel away our layers with love and gentleness as only they can, creating faith in us to trust His digging process. Our fellow humans don't always get it right. We've all been wounded by those who dug incorrectly - proceeding too fast or too hard - causing more harm than good. And we've all been the ones who did this, too. But we're all learning as the diggers or the being dug that somehow, as difficult and tedious as it may be, finding out the ways of a person are always worth it. Many wonderful things are waiting for discovery if only we're willing to allow them to be uncovered by going beneath the surface.