After a few days of placement tests and a week and a half of classes, we had our 入学式 today (school entrance ceremony - uber Japanese thing where they say welcome and 頑張りましょう！a lot. And of course sing a song. And take pictures.), so I am officially in language school now. Here it goes!
One of the 50ish kanji I've learned this week is 解 - "kai". It's a character packed full of meaning, from "unbind" to "cancel" to "solve", and combined with other characters makes the words "understanding", "solution", and "release/set free".
Dissecting the parts of a kanji character is key if I want to have any hope of actually remembering them the next day. This one is 角 (corner/edge) 刀 (sword/knife) 牛 (cow). Totally random, right?
But it so happens, our church devotional book this past week is starting through Leviticus, with several detailed chapters on sacrifices. How they were to lay hands on the head of the bull and kill it, putting the blood on the horns of the altar. Pretty powerful imagery. The edge of a knife, the corners of the altar, a corner, a turning point, for both the sacrifice and the sinner.
And what's the point of it all? Forgiveness. Guilt atoned for, canceled, unbound from sin, a solution to the problem of our ridiculous uncleanness so we can be at peace and stand in God's presence. Set free.
I can't help but be thankful for Christ, who sacrificed Himself so we could be free. He whose cleanness and beauty goes far beyond my imagination, who reminds me of Himself even in Japanese study.
1 kanji down... 2,000 to go?!?! ;)
